Comic Book Review: The Goon #5: Wicked Inclinations by Eric Powell
The Goon (birth name unclear) was once an orphan who worked at a circus, being raised by his strongwoman Aunt Kizzie. When his aunt was killed by the gangster Labrazio, the Goon killed him in revenge, then used the mob boss’ notes to take over the man’s gang. Initially, he pretended to be only Labrazio’s enforcer while the boss himself was “in hiding”, but eventually he admitted that he was the new boss.
While The Goon and his best friend Franky are not exactly good people, the other mob in town is the one run out of Lonely Street by the Zombie Priest. Any corpse that falls into his hands swells the ranks of his gang of the undead. Given a choice between “honest” criminals and unholy mobsters, it’s pretty obvious the Goon is marginally nicer.
The Goon’s series has run sporadically from 1999 to the present, with several one-shots and crossovers. The volume to hand, #5, reprints the Dark Horse run issues 14-18.
The volume begins with the ghoulish gunman Buzzard having a vision that reveals some of the Zombie Priest’s backstory to him. This gives Buzzard insight into why his previous attempts at revenge failed, and he starts guarding the city’s graveyards to prevent more zombies from being made.
While The Goon and Frankie are distracted by a woman with dark powers trying to get revenge on the Norton family (owners of the bar the two hang out at), the Zombie Priest has to find a new, even more fearsome sort of minion. Content note: use of “gypsies.” The story is fun for fighting the rules of dark magic with those of unions.
The new minions, the “chugheads”, are fully introduced and manage to make things worse for the good okay citizens of the city. And to finish off the main stories, the lizard-like Lagarto mutates into a more dangerous form and must be corralled again. The volume ends with some short stories showing more dark humor.
Oh, and there’s a volume introduction by Michael Allred of Madman fame.
Dark humor and grotesque horrific action are the main draws here. The mostly subdued colors and hideous monsters contrast cartoony main characters who crack wise at every opportunity. The setting mostly evokes the 1930s, but at one point there’s a 3-D movie (1950s) that is “what if Cecil B. DeMille directed an R-rated 1980s action film?”
There are mysteries set up in the early work that are gradually revealed through flashback or explanation, though some remain murky to the end. For example, the exact reason why Willie Nagel is one of the few zombies that not only retains human intelligence and (sleazy) personality but refuses to serve the Zombie Priest.
The humor can be good, but the subject matter may be offputting for some readers. One chapter has the contents of an even more extreme story being loosely described as something the author allegedly is being held back from publishing.
Content note: Body horror, violence, gore, toilet humor, dead baby humor, harm to children, harm to animals.
Overall: This isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s well done for what it is. Try a chapter and see how it goes.
