Evil, Inc.

Title: Evil, Inc.
Author: Brad J. Guigar (writer/artist), Ed Ryzowski (colorist)
Start Date: 2005
Genre: Superhero, parody, comedy, satire
Update Schedule: Daily
Website: http://www.evil-comic.com

Synopsis:

Evil, Inc. is a corporation run by supervillains, whose goal is to provide evil-doers everywhere with the tools and services they need to thwart superheroes and enact their plans of crime and world domination. Rather than focusing on a protagonist (this comic contains a large cast of central characters, which include staff members as well as the superheroes they face), the comic instead chooses to focus on the politics in and surrounding the corporation, providing an analogue and satire on real-world business practices.

Recommended Age Group: 12 and group. Most of the comic’s content is safe, although there is some sexual humor.

Strengths:

The comic’s art style and format are very reminiscent of newspaper comic strips. The characters are sympathetic and likable and it contains well-written nods to the tropes of DC and Marvel heroes and villains.

Weaknesses:

This comic contains a lot of filler, usually one strip per week. To their credit, many of these are gut-bustingly hilarious, but the author prefers to keep many of these strips in the exact same format. He basically copies and pastes them and just changes the dialogue. They tend to break the flow of the storylines, and they begin to feel redundant after a while.

Also, the author has a habit of including a bio page for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the comic. It’s fine if you want to introduce main, major, or even secondary characters into the story, but here’s the problem: Guigar also gives bios to background characters who don’t even deserve them. Thankfully, Guigar rarely does this anymore, but it can make for a very annoying read when catching up through the archives.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. In the same vein as Atomic Laundromat, Evil, Inc. provides a unique take on the superhero genre that isn’t necessarily about good guys fighting bad guys. Instead, it’s a cleverly crafted social commentary that’s definitely worth a look.

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