Renato Jones: The One % #1 Review - Just for the Hell of it Mondays

Mr. Jones and Me

Created, Written, Drawn, & Colored by: Kaare Kyle Andrews
Cover Price: $3.99
Release date: May 4, 2016
Publisher: Image Comics

A Branden Murry @bmur3660 Review Joint

If you’re anything like me, and sitting around on a Saturday night, chances are you begin to beg your significant other into “allowing” you to watch an action movie.  A guy can only take so much Keeping up with the Kardashians and Teen Mom 2 after all.  Has anyone actually listened to those people talk for an extended period of time? It’s literally exhausting to hear what their manufactured TV problems are week after week and it results in a rage burning deep down in my belly. So when I inevitably hear that soul crushing “NO” to my action movie request and have to endure more Kardashian drama than any normal human could tolerate I try and do a few things to save myself from the rage consuming me. One, I’m sure to grab a pair ear plugs to stop the brain leakage out of my ears as it’s only escape measure, two I get a bowl of ice cream to cool that fire in my belly, and three I grab a comic book which will fill that empty hole in my soul Jason Statham usually cozies up in.  What’s that? More about comics you say and less about my depressing Saturdays as an adult. Fine but I don’t have to like it. 

Anyways, I like Image’s style of providing writers and artists with the platform to create and do what they like with their own ideas. However, I find it can be tough to sort through all various zombie and post-apocalyptic type story clones that exist throughout the independent comic landscape as a whole. This is why I get extra excited those times when a story stands out to me, either through premise or character building work, which allows a book to separate from the others that all feel the same.  Renato Jones is one of these types of books that provide just the right amount of action, intrigue, twisting, and turning to make it different enough to stand out and peak that narrow attention span of mine and fellow ADD riddled people across our country.

We start our story with what looks like a tragic and silent flashback of a little boy witnessing the murder of his family.  It’s pretty and very powerful, all written, drawn, and colored by Kaare Kyle Andrews, but before your given too much information about who or what is going down, we flash forward to the current day and a yacht on the Caribbean Sea.  


Here is where the titles reference to the One Percent starts moving forward as we are introduced to two characters, enjoying the finer things in life. The first character, our villain, has a passion for being a douchebag and using the word “dude” in a way that’s not endearing at all like it is in The Big Lebowski.  The other is our main character (which we don’t really find out until much later in the story) who we see playing along and mining our villain for information.  

An attack on the yacht leads these two characters underground, to a vaulted highly secure type of panic room, as we are treated to a few flashbacks of a little boy along the way. The flashbacks establish the origin story of how crazy a life young Renato has led and justification is provided for just why Mr. Jones is going all Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, on the One Percent of the population.  A few highlights of these flashbacks include a “The Usual Suspects” type scenario which inspires our young protagonist to take the namesake Renato Jones. We’re also treated to an excellent action sequence with a pissed off, well endowed, old lady who knows this new Renato is not what he claims to be. Let me add that seeing how this grandma goes down is almost worth the price of admission on its own accord. 

Back in the present Renato reveals why he’s here to our villain of the issue who has a surprise of his own for our anti-hero.  A lot of bam, smack, and powing start’s to occur as we’re treated to a hell of a fight before our hero’s able to save the day. Our story wraps up with a surprisingly heartfelt twist and a callback to the beginning of the book which was 100% not expected (see what I did there).
Renato Jones was quite the spectacle and not just because Kaare Kyle Andrews has created, written, drawn, and colored the whole kit and caboodle with outstanding results. The story definitely has a Punisher/Robin Hood team up versus the Scummy Rich type of vibe to it but, as far as story beats are concerned, it’s much deeper than a revenge for revenge sake type of tale.

Bits and Pieces:

After one issue our character has an intriguing past and interesting motive for future issues. The art provides a pleasure for the eyes to behold with some great action and unique detail peppered throughout the stories pages.  I’ll be interested in revisiting Mr. Jones … hopefully he’s going to be a big star! (Author Note: Sorry, not sorry, if that song is now stuck in your head for the rest of the day).

8.3/10