Rogue The American Dream is a comic written by David Tomassi with illustrations by _Kittykus_. A woman is tasked with retrieving nuke coordinates by the New American Order. This is a post-apocalyptic dystopian comic with strong political elements and gritty violence. The leading lady for this story is Rogue, she is a muscular woman with strong fighting skills and she is adept with various weapons, but especially firearms. Rogue has an angry disposition and is quick to get physical. This story begins with a brief history lesson on the New America Order. Afterwards we see Rogue being transported to a detention center where she is interrogated for a bit before getting a face-to-face with the President Katherine Vanderbilt. It is in this discussion where Rogue is “encouraged” to retrieve the nuke coordinates. This takes place in the United States where everything west of New York is uninhabitable due to nuclear and bio fallout. The violence here is very bloody and gory with many gruesome attacks. The pacing here is overall faster than average with rare slowdowns. The tone is like what you’d find in a 1980’s action movie. The intensity is high almost the entire time as the threat of violence is constant. The dialogue here is very aggressive and conversational with the occasional cringe. Some of the text bubbles can get thick but there are no word-heavy pages. This is a comic that stars a strong lady lead in a story filled with explosive and violent action.

            The art here has varying levels of detail with an overall gritty style with a bit of smoothness to it. This is in black-and-white with a strong focus on shading. This takes place primarily in and around buildings with the main source of scenery being properties in different states of disrepair. There isn’t a main location here as this is the type of action story where the lead is going from place to place but Rogue will visit a bar, an arena, fancy headquarters, a detention center, and just out and about in what is referred to as the wasteland. The backgrounds are split in multiple ways between showing the surroundings, being a solid/gradient color, or being a unique pattern. The expression level here is above-average as these characters generally don’t hide their emotions well at all. The main feeling is that of anger and rage with some sinister joy/happiness, shock, and a bit of fear as well. The faces are decently drawn with the different looks coming across clearly. The violence here gets physical and involves different bladed and blunt weapons as well as firearms. Things get very bloody and gory though it can be difficult to see how graphic it is. The flow of the action scenes are very dependent on the quality of the art so sometimes it is smooth while other times you might get a bit lost. Rogue is built like a muscular model and she wears tight clothes throughout along with showing a good amount of skin.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like gritty post-apocalyptic dystopian stories with some political elements that stars a woman lead and has a huge amount of violence and gore then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Only five? Hope that doesn’t ruin my reputation.”

 

Kickstarter Link 1: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rebelcomics/rogue-the-american-dream/description

Kickstarter Link 2: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rebelcomics/rogue-the-american-dream-2nd-chance/description

Indiegogo Link: https://indiegogo.com/projects/rogue-the-american-dream/x/26236710#/

FundMyComic Link: https://www.fundmycomic.com/campaign/107/rogue-the-american-dream

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 120

Violent Pages: 55, for 46% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 1% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 5

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”