‘Beer & Bullets’ #1 Review – The Slugs Fly While The Suds Flow In This Action-Packed Indie Crossover
As many comic book readers feel the fatigue from endless crossovers between mainstream publications, the time has come for the underground to emerge, and show that it doesn’t always have to be just another lazy cash-grab, or an excuse to have Deadpool make a cameo. It’s also a way to introduce new worlds to a subdivided subculture, along with the talented minds that built them.
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This inaugural outing from the triple threat of Six Fifteen Comics, Page One Comics/Comicsburgh, and Advent Comics has come to remind us about two out of the three greatest things in life that start with the letter ‘B,’ Beer & Bullets by writers/creators Michael McFadden, Alfred Paige, Tony Kittrell, artist Serj D’Lima, colorist Matheus Huve, and the aptly named letterers, Lettersquids.
The story takes place at the even more aptly named Crossover Bar, which serves cold beer to cold killers as they convene to discuss another week of cold-blooded actions in an atmosphere fully of trash talk, and itchy trigger fingers. Now, grab a drink while I introduce the three not-so-gentle men in this otherwise empty establishment.
James Washington (aka Pinpoint) is a hothead from the streets of Brooklyn whose natural talent for shooting led to being a top ranked sniper in the US Army, and recruited into the personnel team known as C.H.E.S.S. from the Page One Comics/Comicsburgh universe.
Up next is Dalton Malone from the Southside series by Advent Comics. This former Special Forces soldier left the military, and went back home to Washington, D.C., after his friend was murdered. Armed with pure determination, and elite combat skills, Dalton sets out for revenge, Punisher-style, and he won’t stop until he ‘Gits all them Suckas’. This leaves quite possibly the baddest one of them all.
Known as “The Black Plague,” Subject Zero of Six Fifteen Comics is a government trained assassin from Parts Unknown, and he’s the first one to call for a top secret termination. That’s because he possesses strength and agility that surpasses regular people, rapid healing factor, accelerated senses, night vision, mastery of stealth, the ability to sense fear from everyone nearby, and we haven’t even gotten to what he can do with that damn sword.
After another blood-soaked week of “THAT” life, the three killers have gathered at the Crossover Bar to get their drink on while bragging about their recent exploits, and to prove that the size of one’s gun does matter. The party gets interrupted by some clown in a nanotech suit who calls himself Phantom Tech, and they have to put their egos (and drinks) aside to stop him before he wrecks the place.
If you’re into callbacks to the golden days of action from the 80s, and the highly undervalued 90s, then you’ll get a kick out of this book. The pacing is tight, the dialogue is witty, and the artwork pops in all the right places. The story ends on a cliffhanger, and one can only hope that the next issue isn’t too far away. Beer & Bullets #1 is available on the Six Fifteen Comics website.
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