Six-Gun Gorilla #1

In a futuristic western adventure set during what appears to be the 22nd Century Civil War based on the struggle for limited natural resources, Six Gun Gorilla #1 isn't quite what I expected (especially from a comic with a gun-totting Gorilla on the cover from Boom Studios).

Although our cryptic title character is teased throughout the first issue in the distance, we only get our first good look at him in the comic's final pages to save the life of a soldier known as Blue-3425. This means the story we're given focuses on a bizarre group of kamikaze soldiers known as "Blues" whose dual purpose is to be cannon fodder for the real soldiers and record and transmit the images of the battle for those watching back home.

The comic is more dystopian and less whimsical than I expected from the title. The world writer Simon Spurrier and artist Jeff Stokely throw is into takes awhile to get used to (and I could have done without the number of oddball sci-fi terms thrown in). I'm not sure it's a comic that I'll stick with it, but it's certainly worth a look.

[Boom Studios, $3.99]