Last time I read Son of the Gun Vols. 1 & 2 which was one of the grimiest, noirest, crime-iest, crime stories I’ve read in a long, long time. It was great! But after reading something that intense I needed a break. I needed a good mindless action movie in comic book form. I found that in KINGDOM: CALL OF THE WILD, written by Dan Abnett, illustrated by Richard Elson, published by Rebellion.

Sometime in the far future, man has gone into hibernation. Many years ago, the insects of the world mutated and grew to giant size. They quickly started eating everything in sight including people. As the world crumbled, the last vestiges of humanity placed themselves in suspended animation to escape the bugs. Before going to sleep, humanity created a race of genetically engineered dogs which were trained as soldiers. While mankind slept, these dog soldiers would scour the earth and destroy the insects so that man could return. This is the story of one such dog-soldier, Gene the Hackman, in the land of Auxtralia as he battles mogrel packs of canine soldiers, vicious bugs, and even humans who have managed to survive in a very crazy world.

Dan Abnett is a staple of the comic book industry both here in America and in England, too. This collects his work published in 2000AD, which you don’t often see on the stands so I was excited to read it. If you’ve read Abnett before then you know what you are getting. As expected, this is an action packed story with enough characterization to carry you between the really big explosions. Abnett has his tongue firmly in his cheek for the entire book. Every character’s name is some version of a modified movie star. There’s Gene obviously, Clara Bow (named such because her weapon of choice is a bow), and many others. Our hero is a modified dog so Abnett uses more dog analogies in the book than you can throw a stick at. It’s fun and silly and keeps the book from getting too serious. It doesn’t make you think too hard and moves at such a quick pace that you can’t help but enjoy the ride.

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