Die Hard Year 1: #2 (Boom! – Chaykin / Thompson)
BOOM! Studios continues to present America’s greatest action hero translated into the sequential art form for the first time! Drunks, pimps, freaks and the debauched rich. It’s all in a night’s work for NYPD rookie John McClane. But what happens when 1976’s toughest kid on the street runs into a dark conspiracy involving a blonde on the run? With McClane, it means the fun’s just starting. Join legendary industry creator Howard Chaykin on a thrill ride that’s rung up over $1 billion in box office worldwide and become the gold standard for classic action! Yippee Ki Yay!
I so went into this with a good attitude, being a huge fan of Willis, I wanted to love it. And while I like it… loving it or buying the trade might be a stretch.
So what you have here is a gritty cop story set in the 70’s about a rookie trying to do what is morally right in a political climate that is about looking the other way for the “right” people. He has to set his beliefs against his environment. It is a classic premise and written well. Add in a cabal-ish conspiracy, cops on the take and the retro setting of the 70’s and this origin story is a hit! Well, sort of… I just don’t think that McClane comes across well in comic form. No movie action character ever has… you ever read a good James Bond comic? no, I didn’t think so. The story is good, the art is fine and does a good job of trying to grab three decades ago, but overall this falls flat from the lack of interpretation. This is a story worth telling, just not in comic form.
Issue Grade: C+
