Violent Love #1
Writer: Frank J. Barbiere
Artist: Victor Santos
Publisher: Image Comics
Review by David Hildebrand
Crime and romance are two genres that generally create an exciting story. Some of my favorites are Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers, Alabama and Clarence from True Romance, and of course Bonnie and Clyde. Violent Love #1 parallels the couples that I mentioned. However, it does an incredible job of capturing its own style and stands on its own.
Violent Love #1 tells the story of Rock Bradley and Daisy Jane, a couple of notorious bank robbers in the American Southwest… and then they fall in love. The first issue is titled “The Ballad of Daisy Jane” and it is essentially her origin story. The tale takes us back to 1987 when Daisy Jane was a waitress at a diner. She is harassed by the locals, but she doesn’t take any shit from anyone and retaliates. Her father questions her actions and says its just work. But Daisy Jane isn’t hearing that, she has dreams and has applied to college. Daisy Jane’s father is one of the best mechanic’s in California. He also has a past that he later indulges in again. Daisy Jane discovers that her pops is up to his old tricks and decides to leave her old life behind her.
I like how Violent Love #1 progressed. Barbiere has done a fantastic job with this first issue. His story starts out strong, with great pacing and never lets up. I especially like how the focus is on Daisy Jane and her story instead of trying to jam everything into one issue in efforts to move the story along. It’s a perfect example of quality or quantity as Barbiere doesn’t saturate the first issue with a lot of minor details. I’m already looking forward to the second issue, which will hopefully be the story of Rock Bradley.
Santo’s art is very gritty, yet stylish. He captures that grindhouse-esque, B-rate movie look, and the colors compliment the art beautifully. This is a dynamic creative team; they have already proved that with Black Market and have a strong showing with this first issue of Violent Love!
The Verdict
Buy it! If you are a fan of outlaw couples and grindhouse type comics, then strap in because Violet Love is going to be an insane ride! Barbiere and Santos have shown that this is going to be an exciting narrative. I already like Daisy Jane and I’m interested in seeing what turns this future college student into the violent criminal that she becomes. Pick this book up before it’s too late, I’m sure that it will sell out!
