Deron Generally
Deron Generally
WWE Attitude 2018 Special #1 Review
Boom! Studios
Written by Aaron Gillespie, Kevin Panetta, Julian May, Ryan Ferrier
Art by Michel Mulipola, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Hyeonjin Kim, Kendall Goode
Colors by Doug Garbark, Jeremy Lawson
Letters by Jim Campbell
Anyone who remembers the Attitude Era of the WWE remembers the bombastic personalities, huge stories and fun of the superstars and their backstage and on stage rivalries. This comic special attempts to recreate the look and feel of that era and, for the most part, succeeds. The special is broken up into four separate stories featuring the WWE Superstars and I will be reviewing them separately and that will inform my review of the whole.
Funeral for A Rattlesnake
One of the best rivalries of the Attitude Era was the epic battle between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. In this story, the rivalry continues outside of the ring with Rock getting the upper hand with Austin and causing the Texas Rattlesnake to fall off a bridge. Austin doesn’t take too kindly to that and what follows is a fight for his life, a swim to shore, The Rock coming out at the main event to bury Stone Cold and Austin getting behind the wheel of a monster truck with a smile on his face.
This was immensely fun and a great call back to how big and outrageous WWE went with their storylines. The dialogue was pitch perfect and the visuals were a great complement to the story itself. The story does end on a cliffhanger that made me want to see more of a resolution. 8.5/10
Table for 3: The Three Faces of Foley
Dude Love, Cactus Jack and Mankind are all sitting down to dinner and going over their careers. The irony that all three characters were played by Mick Foley is not lost in both the story and the visuals and it’s a testament to the character that he was able to create three distinctive characters that could have their personalities rendered on the page so well.
This was another really fun interlude style story that showcased how awesome Foley’s characters were and even had a fun twist at the end. The art was well done and there was care taken to give each character their distinctive look to the point where they could conceivably be different people. 8.0/10
Lita vs Trish
This one involves the build up to Lita’s victory as Women’s Champion and her battles against Trish Stratus. Visually, the story looks great, but there wasn’t much there thematically or story wise. It recreates a classic rivalry that fans of the WWE will remember fondly, but it doesn’t really add anything new or interesting to the overall narrative. 6.5/10
Behind Enemy Lines
This one is the longest story of the special and definitely has the most fun with the characters and the storylines. Triple H and the rest of D-Generation X are on a mission to infiltrate WCW to piss off Eric Bischoff. There’s no grand plan or agenda. This is just fun and the characters relish in the absurdity of what they are doing. When Bischoff decides to enlist NWO members Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to stop the invasion, leading to a really interesting encounter between the two teams.
This interlude is pure fun and it knows it. It’s not trying to be anything more than what it is and the attempt to be a fun pairing between rival factions works. 9.0/10
WWE Attitude 2018 Special
