2 crampons out of 5

Jason Burns is an idea man.  His name is on a ton of creator-owned books but, you’ll notice, not much else.  I read his ‘Dummy’s Guide to Danger’ at one point and then started hunting down his other work.  ‘Dummy’ was a fun idea that was fun to read.  The writing had a sort of Bendis approach to gabby dialogue that’s meant to sound natural, but without as much stupidity as Bendis gives his characters, so it’s was simply enough to read.  But after making my way through a good portion of Burns’ work, I realized I wasn’t enjoying the writing as much as I was the premise.  And often I’d find myself even hoping the premise was developed more.  But: Burns is an idea man.

The Expendable One is about Twigs Dupree, who, after getting involved in an accident with a very hastily described serum that’s intended to grow back limbs, finds that nothing you can do can kill him.  It hurts, but he can be whittled down to nothing but skeleton and, sure, survive.  We’ll forgive the lack of detail on his condition because, whatever, it’s just supposed to be fun.  And it is for the most part.  Twigs gets involved with a crazy FBI Agent on the hunt for “The Monster,” who is the leader of a cult of evil wolf-worshiping peoples, with the idea to use Twigs inability to die as a boon for getting close to the threat.  There’s lots of blood and lots of puns.  It’s a quick read.

But there’s something off about the whole thing that makes it okay to set it down and never finish it.  Partially this is due to Bryan Baugh’s loose illustration style, which allows the reader to quickly move over the page without absorbing a single thing on it, the simplicity of the style sometimes demanding that you flip the page before you’re done reading.  Burns is, as mentioned, a bit gabby, so pairing him with someone with a bit more grounded style is beneficial (the second volume of Expendable One is better for this reason).  Also, unfortunately, the main Twigs is drawn makes him look like a dick.  His expression just makes him look like a smug asshole.  He is sort of smug, and is sort of an asshole, but he’s our main character, so maybe we should like him a little bit.

Though some of the fault definitely lies with Burns.  I forget which, but there was a blurb from a comic company for which Burns worked and wrote that claimed that its properties were intended to be turned into films.  Expendable One has apparently been picked up.  And you can tell.  ‘Dummy’ is probably a better example of Burns getting a wacky idea and slowing down his pace a little to tell a story.  ‘Expendable One’ is all idea and a rush to get to the end.  That’s it’s readable is a by-product.  Burns has some really great concepts and, yeah, they’d make fun films.  But this book is an example of mostly flash and no substance.  If you like popcorn books with crude gags, you can do worse.  But you can also do a lot better.

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