Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2 is this week’s release from Image Comics’ Shadowline Productions. Jimmie Robinson, as sole creative outlet, goes right into the social satire.
Recap
In the last issue, Bomb Queen decides to run against Donald Trump to be president after an encounter with White Knight. But she seems to be in a sticky situation over some Generation Z superheroes.
Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2 Outrage Rules
Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2 makes clever use of social satire in ways that attract the reader’s attention. In just the opening act, the Queen uses the attack on her to advertise her campaign. Outrage is the Queen’s primary weapon to get her point across. Whether it’s the way she dresses, the uncensored profanity on live TV, or showing Donald Trump up at his rally. Shock advertisement has a paradoxical way of working. Despite the risque subjects, as long as the audience has enough tolerance and the message stays on brand, the point gets across. It is a significant part of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election.
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Along with this are constant references to the toxic sides of the comic industry. There are the little tidbits about the comic industry being dead, often in the form of memes. All despite sales data that display, they’re still in the millions even in the pandemic. Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2 shows that despite these projections, comics are very much alive. If you want a better example, the Queen had an orgy with followers of the campaign-that-shall-not-be-named who all end up dead at her feet. Whether anyone’s for or against her, it’s the Queen who wins.
Art
Jimmie Robinson pulls out all of the stops in his art duties. In the first few pages of Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2, he displays his main character’s vanity. From the way, she decorates her penthouse to advertising her own comics in the background of the news interview. But more importantly, he shows how the world around everyone turns. On a bus are advertisements with varying campaigns that go against one another. To anyone with a linear sense of good and evil like White Knight, they are hopelessly outmatched.
No better display of the above description is in the coloring and lettering. When Bomb Queen appears at the Trump Rally, she speaks about Trump bringing unity to a crowd of overwhelmingly white men who wave Confederate flags. Then she proceeds to praise Trump in a pose resembling the Nazi salute. It’s a display of having power over a man who got his strength from both overtly bureaucratic politics and memes. But now, with someone who can challenge him, Trump is at the Queen’s mercy.
Long Live Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2
Bomb Queen: Trump Card #2 is a display on why the Bomb Queen franchise is memorable. It’s self-awareness of what it’s satirizing means that it pays attention to the context of its subjects. On the surface, it’s just Bad Girl trash, yet that hasn’t stopped other Bad Girls like Lady Death from financial success. Neither does outrage hamper the likes of Trump or the earlier censored campaign. So why would Bomb Queen not satirize these aspects?
What do you all think? Despite everything in this review, is this just Trump or Bad Girl propaganda in disguise? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
