Recommendation: Do a Powerbomb! by Daniel Warren Johnson
Continuing with this weekend's wrestling theme by encouraging people to check out a pretty great graphic novel.
In lieu of my usual Saturday repost of an old review of mine, here’s a quick recommendation that fits with my current focus on professional wrestling:
Do a Powerbomb!
Written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson
Colors by Mike Spicer
Lettering by Rus Wooton
Published by Image Comics, 2023
Buy it
If you’re looking for a good comic that captures the excitement and drama of wrestling, this one is pretty perfect. It’s about a couple of professional wrestlers who get recruited to compete in an intergalactic/interdimensional tournament, not realizing until they get there that the wrestling these alien creatures do is real and very dangerous. It’s full of wild action that’s depicted in Daniel Warren Johnson’s dynamic style, along with some excellent drama that, like the pro wrestling we watch on TV here on Earth, turns interpersonal relationships and conflicts into compelling in-ring competition. Johnson does a great job of building the characters and making us care about them, and the wrestling gets more and more over the top until the heroes are competing on a scale that’s nearly unimaginable. But even in the midst of all that, he manages to deliver a surprisingly emotional climactic moment that brought tears to my eyes. It’s clear that he’s a huge wrestling fan, and he managed to translate his enthusiasm into creating the best possible story he could make. I think he succeeded in that goal.