The games continue while some secrets that are revealed may rock Black Badge to the core!
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Tyler Jenkins
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
The initial idea of a comic book that creates a mix between the boy scouts and a covert para-military group seems rather fun and exciting on the surface. Yet with BLACK BADGE, you don’t know what you are truly in store for until you read it.
As we enter issue 6, the Rainbow Badge Jamboree is in full swing. During the course of the event, we are being given back story as to the creation of the various other badges that are part of this generations-old organization.
Comics have always been a medium for certain creators to tackle social and political issues, and this issue is no different. You think you are going to get a simple badge vs badge standoff, but below the surface, you become more and more aware that it’s more a battle of genders than anything.
You are given the backstory of the Black Badge and how the Boy Scouts wanted nothing to do with them, so the creator of the organization funded it secretly, essentially creating his own personal army of boy scout assassins. During the course of his afternoon tea on the porch with his wife, he is convinced that women can do this just as well as men.
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During the course of the issue, you come to find out that women have been better at this spy game than men have been for years. Matt Kindt has done an amazing job mixing the espionage game with the social commentary over gender role debate that has been raging in this country for years.
Using comics as a device for political or social commentary can be a very tricky thing to accomplish and while it’s been done in places before on a grand scale, like with Speedy and drugs, for example, in this case having it done on what is essentially an indie book is the best way to go about it. The creator has more freedom to truly say what he or she wants to and can convey the point without much in the way of a watchful eye from an executive from on high.
The final reveal in the issue is something that I won’t spoil here, but it’s something that really adds gasoline to the debate and makes this issue something that you should definitely go out of your way to read.
BLACK BADGE No. 6
4 out of 5 Stars