Drax #9 Review - Marvel Mondays

Shoot to (Killer) Thrill

Written by: CM Punk and Cullen Bunn

Art by: Scott Hepburn, Antonio Fabela and VC's Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 27, 2016

Drax is one of those books that sometimes makes you wonder who green lit it, but other times puts a huge smile on your face.  So far, it's been mainly the latter for me.  CM Punk and Cullen Bunn have gone with the humorous side of Drax by throwing him into a hilarious "A funny thing happened to me on the way to killing Thanos" type of story that hits the funny bone, but surprisingly the heart as well.  Does this issue continue that trend?  Let's find out...

The issue opens with exactly what we all wanted to see after last issue's cliffhanger...the baby of Fin Fang Foom!  If it's not funny enough to see the little dragon bonding with a very upset about it Drax, Pip is there to put the exclamation point on every hilarious bit.  While Drax figures out what to do with the little guy, a battle rages on somewhere else on the Space Sucker.

It's Ora and Killer Thrill beating the shit out of each other both physically and verbally.  It all stems from Ora leaving her partner for dead and that is a black and white, no excuse is good enough type of thing for Thrill.

Believe me, They Live has nothing on this battle!  It rages on aboard the ship, aboard an escape pod and during a crash landing.  Right before that last part, Ora admits why she did (or actually didn't) do what she did.  Killer Thrill is crazy!  Surprise!!!  She's also been a bad, bad girl who pulled an Anakin Skywalker (even the children...), but not on stinking Sand people. I'm sorry, but Sand People are just disgusting!

In case you weren't convinced that KT isn't criminally insane, she starts what she hopes will be the long torture of Ora when Drax and company fall from the sky and stop the fun.  Actually, the fun is just starting as Killer Thrill is harder to catch than my wife's boyfriend.  I was waiting for her to give someone a wedgie, but instead she grabs Pip and disappears.

After finding out that Ora isn't long for this Universe, we find out who sent KT and why they sent her.  I won't spoil it, but it's pretty kick ass.  It sets up a cliffhanger that promises some crazy action to come and I can't wait to see it.

After a bit of a down issue last month, CM Punk and Cullen Bunn get everything up and moving once again and I liked it.  It kind of threw me off at first that we weren't getting a ton of Drax in his own book, but it was good setup for a great ending.  This one was more action and less humor, but there still were a couple of laughs...I'll call them bonus chuckles and they were icing on the cake.

Scott Hepburn gives the reader some intense, yet easy to follow action and also some great character work.  The expressions he gives his characters are so good and really help nail what's going on...anger, humor, a combination of both...  However, the best has to do with the thing I didn't want to spoil above, but trust me, it looks awesome!

Bits and Pieces:

Drax is back on track after a down issue and while CM Punk and Cullen Bunn give us a setup issue, I had a lot of fun reading it.  It's brutal, funny and beautiful and while this book is flying under a lot of people's radars, I am enjoying it month in and month out.  

8.0/10