BLOODSTRIKE: BRUTALISTS is a treat for comic fans. It fuses the insanity of 90s comic book storytelling with the attitude of an underground comic/'zine. It's a singular reading experience that can only come from sequential art. Read Full Review

First a note, I don't like Rob Liefeld's comic work. I hear he's generally a great guy, he's contribution to the indie comic revolution can't be understated, and I hear regardless of everything else, he's a workhorse. But I am not a fan.

I bought this issue, and plan to buy the next two, based on Michel Fiffe's name alone. Much like how I got into Brandon Graham's Prophet, Erik Larsen's Supreme, and Joe Keatinge's Glory several years ago. Fiffe's Copra is amazing, being both a love letter to 80s DC & Marvel and very much its own take on the modern team super book. Fiffe's art is always a treat with its expressive lines, and marker style coloring. And his layouts and lettering are easily some of the best in the business. The guy is overflowing with creative energy, and he wears what he loves on his sleeve.

Bloodstrike Brutalists is very clearly one man's pet project, to fill in a missing gap of an incomplete series, while also using the opportunity to resolve a few dangling threads. This zero issue in particular acts as an origin story of sorts. One, Fiffe explains in the back matter, that the series never actually had. Hence why its a zero issue. It takes place before issue 1. This is useful as it gives Fiffe a chance to establish these characters for new readers like me. Establishing this 'suicide squad' of killers who if they die are just put back together again and sent back out for their next deadly mission, via a government backed cyborg resurrection program.

This all plays into Fiffe's strengths. Unfortunately by being so closely tied to the Liefeld original, Liefeld's weaknesses can't also help shine through. Deadlock is a terribly designed character, looks unabashedly like Marvel's Wolverine (sans claws), even prone to that character's 'berserker' tendencies. Its unfortunate that this issue uses his experience in becoming a Bloodstrike member as it's story through-line. The rest of the cast is at least somewhat interesting in personality and design.

But again, this series is an unashamed love letter to particular time period of a particular kind of comic. So really, it's hard to judge it too harshly on those aspects.

As a new reader, there isn't a ton to hook your teeth into except Fiffe's command of layouts, storytelling, and dialog. You'll probably be wondering who some of these characters are or what their deal is, but to be honest its not that deep that you can't infer by plugging in some basic comic archetypes.

Looking forward to Bloodstrike 23 and 24. more