3 out of 5

Ennis toys with turning it into something more, but by series’ end it’s what you were expecting: a crass romp that pokes fun at hero tropes with a snot-covered middle finger.

It’s been many years since Ennis was able to shove his way into DC continuity via Bloodlines and Hitman; years since the writer could shock American audiences with his ribald sensibilities and yet turn things on their head to suddenly display a thoughtful core.  By now, though, Garth is a relative household name to comic fans, and we can name big books from the writer’s catalogue that are felt to encapsulate what he stands for.  What this means nowadays is that Garth’s return to DC – also via some continuity shakeups via Convergence / Divergence / whatever, so kudos to editorial for taking advantage – perhaps carries with, for the writer, less direct limitations.  It’s crazy that a character like Guts – guts that exist outside of a body, apparently female – and be the source of affection for a character like Bueno Excellente – a speedo-wearing overweight and hairy man who says “Bueno” and alludes to getting erections a lot – as well as the source that spurns a “perv-off” between Bueno and… jesus, well, look, it’s crazy to consider this stuff happening in a regular DC book.  There might be more indirect limitations, at this point, for Garth to overcome, thanks to that reputation that’s been established of which I’m essentially speaking to above, and I do think that informs his recent return to projects like this and Dicks, both with artist John McCrea, and both aiming to include as many bodily fluids as their relative imprints will allow.  By the same token, Section Eight is and always has been a total joke (we have a character who was created post a competition for creating the most outlandish character name, after all), and that seems to have guided the path of this mini down an overall enjoyable route of laughs over shock.  There are some highs that suggest at an ultimate parody that could’ve been, as Eight leader (and perpetual drunk) Six Pack attempts to reunite his crew and score a big name like Batman, or Superman, or another JLA-er for his team, who then ends up guest-starring in that issue: the opening book plays out like a hazy dream for Six Pack, awakening to Batman outside of Noonan’s bar getting a parking ticket and posing – expertly rendered by McCrea in the style of different artists – in various famous shots from his comic history.  This meta-ness is further doodled with in the penultimate issue with a rapping Phantom Stranger, and we almost think that Garth is going to give us another heartfelt Hitman-esque payoff for the finale…

…And maybe he does, in his own way, but in one that is also incredibly, hilariously fitting for Section Eight.  In between these bookends, the Comix Suck baiting isn’t quite as strong; the potential gender commentary of the Wonder Woman issue gets shrugged off (although to Garth’s credit he deals with gender inequality in a lot of his books already) and Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern get whittled down to one-joke issues, basically.  McCrea stays on task for the whole book, though (his style can lend itself to a rushed look at times, and that doesn’t happen here), and colorist John Kalisz avoids the flat digital colors that ruin a lot of McCrea’s stuff, meaning the visuals stay bouncy and light and thus the whole read – dumb jokes and snot and vomit and all else – similarly bounces by, its lesser moments much more tolerable as a result and its hilarious moments that much more notable.

And yes, it’ll make you want to read Hitman (…and Demon) again.