OUT Now (1/30/2019) is WWE Forever #1 from BOOM! Comics.
It features stories with some serious WWE legends. Bret Hart, Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart (no relation), Junk Yard Dog, Harley Race, British Bulldog, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Irwin R. Shyster and others. These are fictional behind the scenes tales turning the soap opera and their personalities into stories as if when the cameras turn off their lives continue just like the WWF programming.
This is an anthology piece featuring 5 stories of different length, style and exploration. Personally, Arune Singh’s debut writing piece Internal Audit with art by Kendall Goode is my favorite. It takes advantage of what the comic allows in such great fashion. From an art standpoint, Brent Schoonover truly wins me over simply from drawing Matilda. The other three stories are worthy additions that do a nice job exploring 80’s/90’s history of the WWE in a small chunk of slice of life.
In BOOM!’s continuing WWE comics which has explored origins in NXT, recent happenings in the WWE covering the path of Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and more, FOREVER is an excellent addition. WWF has a long history of comics of this ilk even going back to Acclaim, but the franchise under BOOM! has really felt right. Every writer seems to have a passion and love for the genre of wrestling which allows for the stories to feel properly respectful to the wrestlers and fans while still being as silly as they are on TV.
Even if you aren’t a fan of these characters or knowledable, the art and scripts still balance things well enough that you can enjoy these snippets as well. Give it a try, be you a hardcore fan, a casual fan, a former fan, a new fan or even a fan who will never watch wrestling or could be pulled into wrestling by the characters and ideas.
