‘Do A Powerbomb’ TPB (review)

Written and Illustrated by Daniel Warren Johnson
Published by Image Comics

It seems like once a year now that Daniel Warren Johnson comes out with a comic series and it’s a flat out masterpiece.

Well, here we are again, folks.

This is one of the best series that I have read in quite awhile. Daniel Warren Johnson is a master of the comic book form and he proves that on each page of this excellent book.

The book focuses on Lona Steelrose and her dream of becoming a pro-wrestler.

It starts off with Lona as a child witnessing the tragic death of her mother in the ring. The wrestler Cobrasun kills her in the ring by accident, which makes Lona’s father forbid her from ever becoming a wrestler. Lona doesn’t listen and then we take a time jump to ten years ahead.

Lona has become a wrestler of some note.

Lona meets a necromancer who tells her she can wrestle in a big otherworldly wrestling event. If she wins, she can make a wish and bring back her mother to life.

The catch is that Lona has to be part of a tag team. Lona then realizes she has to choose as a partner is the person who killed her mother: Cobrasun.

The two team up and off they go into some of the craziest fights I have ever seen in a comic. Johnson certainly knows how to draw the action. Every panel is packed with energy and the book just flies by. The storytelling in this book is unprecedented. The action is clean yet manic and I loved every panel that Johnson creates here.

Johnson is also one hell of a writer. The story does have a lot of action. It also has a hell of a lot of characterization and emotions as well. Lona and Cobrasun’s relationship is explored in this and the character reveals are superb. The last chapter is probably one of the wildest one I read in years but Johnson pulls it off.

This is a book with action, dynamic storytelling, and a lot of heart.

RATING: A