In Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson's second volume of their "Justice Warriors" science fiction graphic novel series, the elite leaders of Bubble City hold an election, but will the voices of the downtrodden mutants who inhabit the Uninhabited Zone even be heard? Even if they are, can it possibly even matter?
That's the dystopian question in Justice Warriors: Vote Harder, a raucous political satire that centers around the relationship between two cops, Swamp and Schitt. For the election season, Schitt is assigned bodyguard duty on the incumbent mayor, The Prince. At the same time, Swamp gets sent on an undercover mission to infiltrate the mutant underground opposition: "Protecting democracy from voters," as Bors writes in his newsletter.
It's a bloody election season in and around Bubble City, as gory political violence permeates every campaign event, debate, rally, and polling station.
The whole city is filled with insane characters that are animals, grotesque humans, some combination, or neither. And the buddy-cop theme spurs me to think of Justice Warriors as a darkly political and ultra-violent Zootopia.
I know Bors well from his days in what used to be called the alternative weekly comic strip world, where he did a fantastic editorial cartoon that landed him Pulitzer Prize Finalist honors. He and Clarkson wrote the book, with Clarkson handling the eye-popping narrative art, and Bors drawing the very funny interstitials.
Here is Officer Swamp in a moment of heroics:
And here is Officer Schitt in his own heroic moment:
Vote Harder is masterfully hilarious and grim and thrilling and hopeful and cynical all at the same time.
