BK FEATURE: You now have no excuse not to love Scud: the Disposable Assassin

It's not only one of the few comics that should never be turned into a movie, it's one of the best comics around, period. It's Scud: The Disposable Assassin, and after fourteen motherlovin' years, it's finally finished. Creator Rob Schrab's final issue finally hit newsstands this past Wednesday, completing the four-issue finale Schrab promised more than a decade ago.

Scud, for those not in the know, is the story of a world where disposable assassins ("Scuds") can be purchased from vending machines. After being programmed with a target, the Scud robot kills the mark and explodes, leaving no evidence of the hit. One such Scud – our hero – is sent to kill Jeff, a plug-head monster who speaks only in pop culture quotes. Halfway through an intense, issue-long gun battle, Scud notices the self-destruct warning on his back and decides to incapacitate Jeff rather than kill her (granted, in this context "incapacitate" means "dismember") and take freelance assassination jobs to pay for her life support. It's a nihilistic sci-fi-action-comedy about humanity, love, and religion – but most of all, about blowing stuff up.

Since Scud, I have never seen a comic book so efficiently recreate the look and feel of a truly great John Woo gunfight. Schrab has a definite eye for action; he knows exactly how to compose his panels to almost make them read like individual parts of a flipbook. You'll speed through each issue incredibly fast not necessarily because they're not engaging, but because the pace is so fast, so kinetic, that you can't help but mentally string all the panels together into a gorgeous, blood-soaked ballet of robotic death and destruction. To be perfectly honest, Scud is an action fan's wet dream (did I mention that the main global conflict in the series is between an army of zombies and the US military?).

Yet don't be fooled into thinking that for all its ultraviolent antics, Scud is a particularly vicious or depressing comic. Far from it. Thanks to heapin' helpings of cultural references and characters who always border the absurd, there's just enough laughter and heart in your average Scud issue to keep everything light and entertaining…until it doesn't want to be anymore. 

You see, the story behind Scud's creation is an interesting one, full of heartbreak and betrayal – and I'm referring here to the comic itself, not the character. Schrab created the disposable assassin to get over a nasty breakup (Scud's symbol is a black broken heart on a field of yellow), used his heartbreak to make sixteen fantastic issues, then got his heart broken again, only much worse. He became so nihilistic that issues 16-20 (collected in a trade titled "The Yellow Horseman") are admittedly darker and suckier than the rest of the run. Depressed and angry, Schrab ended issue #20 on the ultimate bummer cliffhanger; Scud agrees to kill everyone he loves. Given all the heartbreak and arguments over character rights and aborted screenplay ideas, had Schrab actually written issue #21 in 1998 it would have undoubtedly delivered on its promise: the world would have died and Scud with it. Yet, instead of doing the easy, impulsive thing – instead of giving into his hatred and depression – Scjhrab put the Scud finale off.

 

And he put it off.

And then he put it off some more.

Ten years later, now with a healthy career in Hollywood, Schrab decided to finish what he started with a four-issue miniseries wrapping up the series from right where it left off. As stated earlier, the final of those issues finally came out this past week. Scud: The Disposable Assassin is finally complete. In essence, this means that no self-respecting comic fan has any reason whatsoever not to have read and fallen in love with the entire series. While aspects of the finale are admittedly a bit abrupt, it wraps things up quite nicely and serves as a great conclusion to a series many comic fans have grown up with. 

 

Without spoiling anything more: it's cleverly written, incredibly drawn, and finally complete. It's funny, violent, and exciting from beginning to end; it's Scud the Disposable Assassin, and you've got no reason not to read/love it.