Rumble #10 Review

Look, by now you know it’s good – Rumble has been pretty fantastic for the last few months – the real question is: Is is STILL good?

Let’s find out:

Rumble #10 (Image Comics)

“I’mma make a snow..scarecrow…barbarian..angel?”

You see, Rumble—a book about an undead barbarian fighting against a secret society of monsters that live hidden from humanity in order for the aforementioned barbarian to gain back his body and escape the scarecrow he currently inhabits—*pant pant pant* – is pretty heavy on backstory. Even with that though, the small character driven moments are what show the genius in this book, and the art and words work together beautifully for this.

For instance:

Del, “the lovable skinhead,” is the best character, by far.

Rathraq is ostensibly the focus of the book, but for my money, the moments where Del finally gets to live out his various insane fantasies and talk some shit to a monster? Pure gold.

Issue 10 picks up seconds after the wrap-up of 9, with our human heroes confronted with the big bad of the series and the monsters he’s enslaved, and Rathraq fighting against an insane pig demon he’s killed before. You know, the usual.

Focusing on our barbarian friend for a moment, I thought that the incredibly powerful and seemingly huge action scenes from issue 9 were the tops, but Harren outdoes himself again with massive action splash pages that seem LOUD. That’s how good they are, you feel like they’re YELLING.

“SHHH I’M READING THIS IN THE LIBRARY!”

The story is still chugging along with more and more wrinkles each week, including a final page that is potentially a red herring, or a very well telegraphed kick to the solar plexus—but we’ll find out soon I’m sure.

Is It Good?

It’s great. 9.5 out of 10. I’m freaking hooked.

The crazy thing about this book is that it seems to be accelerating each month, but not in some breakneck, “We done lost control of the truck Pa!” speed. This feels like a very measured increase, with small plateaus in some issues to give you a breath, before steadily pressing down on the accelerator again.

Overall, this is the book that I’ve been most looking forward to each month, as the weird H.P. Lovecraft-like mythology, mixed with Conan the Barbarian action, and sitcom like humor all blend together into a fantastic mix. Grab this issue, grab the collections, GET IT ALL. If we’re lucky someone will toss some cash at Guillermo and tell him to make this a film as insane as the book.

STOP READING THIS AND GO GET IT.f