Catholicism Wow takes a brand new step forward in this alternate universe tale where a Runaway Nun claims that a clone of Jesus lives!
Runaway Nun: Misbegotten #1
Written by Caesar Vighan and Justin Case
Art by Justin Case
Published by Flush Royale Media
Cover Price: $0.99
Welcome to an Alternate World
This book drops us into an alternate world. One where it seems like the crusades have never stopped. The Catholic church is the key power in the world. They fight with swords and spears because they view these weapons as more righteous. The beginning of the issue goes straight into a battle with a bunch of these gun-toting unbelievers and they are quickly vanquished. Then when a sexy Marilyn Monroe clone shows up, everything stops. This clone claims that her boyfriend is another clone, and his DNA comes from Jesus Christ himself.
The ideas in this issue are intriguing. I’m fascinated by a culture that evolved by fighting only with pure sword fighting. I’m also intrigued by how this culture came into power. What event led them to conquer? Where is the divergence from our timeline? This aspect is never explained in the story, and it’s an element that I desperately wanted to be touched upon. Because that’s the main weakness of this issue, too many ideas in too few pages.
Runaway Nun throws us into the story through a battle scene. Next into a forced sex scene. (Gotta have that artist draw pretty naked women! We’ll get to that later.) Finally it ends up in future New York, and the revelation about Jesus happens. Before a quick cutscene with a villain who has been cloning everyone from the 20th century including Hitler.
I’m very conflicted by this comic. There are a lot of great ideas here. But I wonder how the issue might be different if we began with the Jesus revelation. That seems to be the most important idea of the book, or at least what will maybe carry the series on. Instead, we have to read through almost 19 pages to get to that scene. I felt lost most of the time I was reading this issue, and I even read it three times before I wrote this review to make sure it wasn’t just me. Runaway Nun has great ideas, but needs to focus.
A CHURCH HAS NEVER LOOKED THIS BEAUTIFUL
Justin Case does a fantastic job on pencils. Amazing. His style could best be described as Greg Land with more detail which is one the strengths of this issue. I don’t blame the writer at all to make Justin Case draw beautiful naked women. Because when the art is this good, Case can make any scene work. My only nitpick is that Mr. Case also did the lettering in this book. The dialogue balloons are not balloons at all but warped squares. This gives the lettering an amateurish look which is a shame because everything else about the art is amazing. It would not surprise me at all to see Justin Case’s name on a high profile book in a couple of years. He’s definitely an artist to watch.
THE BOTTOM LINE: To Nun or not to Nun?
Runaway Nun: Misbegotten #1 has some great story ideas and amazing art. But the story problems make me remiss to suggest this issue. If you are interested in the history of the Crusades than I would say this is a book for you. Otherwise, I would think twice before stepping inside the world of Runaway Nun.
