The absolute worst dudes in the galaxy are on the hunt for a missing pop star. Can they overcome their own flaws to prevail? I kinda doubt it… Your Major Spoilers review of The Worst Dudes #4 from Dark Horse Comics awaits!
THE WORST DUDES #4
Writer: Aubrey Sitterson
Artist: Tony Gregori
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Editor: Brett Israel
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 1, 2021
Previously in The Worst Dudes: The Worst Dudes have been searching for rock star Zephyr Monsoon and it’s gone exactly how you might expect: Time-share scams, a tribe of robots, well-endowed men in leather and a planet that… Uh… One can’t describe in family-friendly ways. Now they’re on their way to an interstellar brothel looking for clues…
That should go well.
IN THE GALACTIC CAT HOUSE
The Worst Dudes #4 opens with Sam Sugar (a dirty cop), Bang Monsoon (the teenage son of a storm god), and Caligula Monomacho (a cat-man who used to be the backup dancer and partner of their missing pop star) at a brothel, the tastefully named Butt Buffet. Intercut with flashbacks of Bang’s childhood, we see Cal take off to have sex with one of the locals, while Sam tries to do a little bit of detective work. (Poor Bang is underage, and isn’t allowed inside… so he has to sneak in.) Once the debauchery is complete, our crew of scuzzballs follows Sam’s leads, only to have The Godhead itself arrive to declare their doom in rhyme. Caligula is offended by his use of a certain word for feline, but the arrival of a voicemail from the missing Zephyr sends them off again, only to find her strangely mutated. Sugar leaves his partners alone to call the people he’s REALLY working for with the bad news: Zephyr’s apotheosis is upon her.
And the universe IS doomed.
GLEEFULLY OVER-THE-TOP
As a fan of Sitterson’s previous book, No One Left To Fight, I had been interested in this title, but I have to be honest: The PR turned me off. The solicitation copy, the cover and even the “what has gone before” summary on the inside front cover are laden chock full of come-ons and promises of the dirtiest comic ever seen… and honestly, it feels a little juvenile. The story in The Worst Dudes #4 itself overcomes some of that, with interesting character work (including some funny back-and-forth between Bang and Cal that brought a smile to my face), but it’s still tough to get through moments like the arrival at the Butt Buffet without feeling like I need a shower. There’s a solid detective story somewhere within, though, and Sam Sugar helps to take a little of the curse off that. The art feels like a slightly less angular Kev O’Neill of Marshal Law notoriety, filled with the same sort of side bits and visual gags, including one of the most obscene Total Recall riffs I’ve ever encountered.
BOTTOM LINE: IT’S NOT FOR ME
All in all, though, as much as I liked the overall conceit of The Worst Dudes #4, the problems I worried about after seeing the breathless copy and promises of grossness, perversity and dirty words were mostly borne out in these pages, with the overall package earning 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. It’s by no means a bad comic, but it revels in being a juvenile one, reminding me of Beavis and Butt-head if they’d had internet porn, and as such, it’s not a book for me. Mileage as always, may vary, but buyers should be ready for this book to earn every ounce of its cover warnings.
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THE WORST DUDES #4
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Writing5
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Art6
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Coloring5
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.