Comic Books

‘The Holy Roller’ #5 bowls a nearly perfect game

‘The Holy Roller’ lives up to its name with maybe its best issue yet.

March 19, 2024

It would be a hack joke to say that The Holy Roller is on a roll. But I am a g-d hack sometimes, and after issue #5, The Holy Roller is clearly on a damn roll!

In the past, I’ve noted how the book tended toward a two steps forward, one step back approach. Sure, the art team (artist Roland Boschi and colorist Moreno Dinisio) have been killing it most of the team with a grounded bit of pulpy superhero fun, but the writers — Rick Remender, Andy Samberg, and Joe Trohman — couldn’t always nail that balance of humor to better control the story’s more irksome tendencies.

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But with issue #5, a lot of that’s addressed in a massive way. Specifically, the humor here is top-notch, and while we don’t get quite as many zingers from young Levi Cohen, what he does offer up is tight and genuinely effective. And that very tendency somehow informs or even trickles down to the rest of the book in a few different ways.

For one, I think we’re seeing a little more of that humor and brevity translated visually. Boschi and Dinisio have nailed the feel of this slice-of-life modern America superhero story as much as they’ve provided some inventive approaches to fight scenes. That’s certainly true in #5 — Levi is a master at wielding bowling balls in a gory but rather graceful manner — but these fights also feel more like a source of humor and (rather ironically) deep humanity. It’s small details, like the way a goon’s face explodes or the expert use of sound effects, but it extends the weirdness of this book in a way that never takes away from the story (like a misguided pun might) and always keeps us fully engaged in the moment.

Courtesy of Image Comics.

Through that, the world feels all the more brutal and kooky, and it fosters this sense that things are aligning and coalescing in some really important ways. It’s a move by this book to further grow not by adding on or leaning toward new ideas to address its endearing but unfocused start but instead fully nailing that uneven balance with greater depth and efficiency.

At the same time, I think the visual magic is only part of it. The bulk of this issue sees Levi infiltrate a secret meeting of the town’s neo-Nazi party, and while I dare not spoil a damn thing from said conference, I will say it makes for both the most bonkers outcome possible and also a massive sign of this book’s true prowess and long-term vision.

I can say that, up until issue #5, the book touched on antisemitism and the alt right in some mostly flirtatious ways, using these topics to help craft a story about often underserved and underrepresented communities in the U.S. and how they’re at risk. (Even if “bashing Nazis with bowling balls” doesn’t seem nearly as subtle.) But in issue #5, that flirtation became a full on relationship (pardon the awkward analogy) as the team structure some happenings that really focus this book’s thematic interests. While I can’t really tell you what this is — aside from the fact that the art team here nail events related to A.I. and alt right groups in the most brilliant way possible — I can say that this “stepping up” is decidedly powerful development.

Courtesy of Image Comics.

It pushes the book into more serious and deliberate territory — again, without ruining the humor, like a good Mel Brooks or Troma-inspired property can only muster — and makes it feel like a really important dissection of our modern political quagmire, the terrors of advanced technology, the continued other-ing of people, and the power of communal action against this rising tide. It’s an encapsulation and a tearing down of the U.S. right now in 2024, and it was genuinely a sight to behold. Not only because it’s so savvy and effective, but it came in such a way that that the humor and insanity actually seemed to be sharper than ever. I hope it’ll shock and upset folks plenty, because it’s an issue that nails so many things right and wrong about our country right now with an unflinching honesty and just a smidgen of hope.

There’s other similarly important decisions made across this issue, too. (Even if that whole conference thing was such a powerful, eye-snagging moment of really important comics storytelling.) Like, the way that Jamal, Levi’s friend and possible Robin/Microchip, steps up to add to the humanity of this book. And how Jamal also has a bit that totally nails this book’s other, non-political interest in dissecting superheroes and their value (or lack thereof, perhaps)? And Amy, the will-they, won’t-they love interest for Levi, also has a really important performance in this issue.

All of these are a proper extension of the stuff at the conference, but one thing’s totally clear by now: this book is operating on a whole new level. Sure, it’s a touch less overtly funny (but still hilarious to its core), and through that its found the charisma and chutzpah to go right for the throat. It’s no longer the little engine that might, but a mighty steam engine barreling toward a story with deep stakes emotionally, culturally, and politically. If we were playing actual bowling, it would have blown up all the pins and nearly burned down the concession stand with this mighty blast of an issue.