WWE #20 Review
Writers: Dennis Hopeless & Julian May
Artists: Serg Acuña & Rodrigo Lorenzo
Colorist: Doug Garbark
Letterer: Jim Campbell
The heel duo of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn has been so much fun to watch on TV. They have also been incredibly fun to read about in this arc in the WWE comic book series. After this issue, the Owens and Zayn story is my favorite of the WWE comics and it makes me wish that they had their own series so that I could keep reading about their drama.
This issue gives us the classic scenario about a guy who is kind of good but kind of bad being manipulated by the bad guy and coerced by the good guys. We may see this setup all of the time in all movies, TV shows, and comic books and we definitely see it all the time in wrestling. But Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are both such interesting characters and their story has been a dramatic one with lots of twists and turns so it definitely works really well with them.
This issue is helped by doing what the WWE comic book writers have become so good at: writing things that happened in WWE while also capturing a tiny bit of what we think as fans. The conversation between Daniel Bryan and Sami about how Sami couldn’t make being the good guy get him to the top was amazingly written dialogue. The conflict that Sami is feeling in this issue is unique in that he really did go through an interesting cycle in the WWE. He was beloved in NXT, he went to the main roster where he was loved as a talented face, and he then saw that popularity grow smaller as his face character grew stagnant. (It didn’t help that WWE had him lose every match he wrestled for a while.)
The underdog face character worked for Daniel Bryan and I remember seeing people make the comparison when Sami first came to the main roster. But the WWE universe needed Daniel Bryan exactly at the time we got him. His rise was so great and Sami’s rise didn’t seem to be coming at all. “Meanwhile, I was trying to be you,” Sami says to Daniel Bryan out of frustration. That was a powerful moment in this issue and really captures everything you can imagine that Sami is feeling. Sami Zayn realizes he is going to stay with Kevin Owens for a while longer which then leads us to see the 6-pack challenge at Fastlane.
All of this emotion is captured in the dialogue and is complimented by the emotion we see in the artwork. Serg Acuña perfectly illustrates this story by showing Kevin Owens as the cocky bad guy that he is and by showing Sami look conflicted. We see it in their faces, in their body language, and in their wrestling scenes. The scenes of action in the ring always look great in these issues and this issue is no different.
This story is being told so well by Dennis Hopeless and this issue had me engaged through the entire issue. The behind the scenes conversations that Hopeless has written for these characters in this issue are dramatic and emotional and add to the story that we already know from watching it play out in the ring. All of that along with Serg Acuña’s artwork comes together to make a fantastic comic book about some amazing characters in riveting situations.
Artists: Serg Acuña & Rodrigo Lorenzo
Colorist: Doug Garbark
Letterer: Jim Campbell
The heel duo of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn has been so much fun to watch on TV. They have also been incredibly fun to read about in this arc in the WWE comic book series. After this issue, the Owens and Zayn story is my favorite of the WWE comics and it makes me wish that they had their own series so that I could keep reading about their drama.
This issue gives us the classic scenario about a guy who is kind of good but kind of bad being manipulated by the bad guy and coerced by the good guys. We may see this setup all of the time in all movies, TV shows, and comic books and we definitely see it all the time in wrestling. But Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are both such interesting characters and their story has been a dramatic one with lots of twists and turns so it definitely works really well with them.
This issue is helped by doing what the WWE comic book writers have become so good at: writing things that happened in WWE while also capturing a tiny bit of what we think as fans. The conversation between Daniel Bryan and Sami about how Sami couldn’t make being the good guy get him to the top was amazingly written dialogue. The conflict that Sami is feeling in this issue is unique in that he really did go through an interesting cycle in the WWE. He was beloved in NXT, he went to the main roster where he was loved as a talented face, and he then saw that popularity grow smaller as his face character grew stagnant. (It didn’t help that WWE had him lose every match he wrestled for a while.)
The underdog face character worked for Daniel Bryan and I remember seeing people make the comparison when Sami first came to the main roster. But the WWE universe needed Daniel Bryan exactly at the time we got him. His rise was so great and Sami’s rise didn’t seem to be coming at all. “Meanwhile, I was trying to be you,” Sami says to Daniel Bryan out of frustration. That was a powerful moment in this issue and really captures everything you can imagine that Sami is feeling. Sami Zayn realizes he is going to stay with Kevin Owens for a while longer which then leads us to see the 6-pack challenge at Fastlane.
All of this emotion is captured in the dialogue and is complimented by the emotion we see in the artwork. Serg Acuña perfectly illustrates this story by showing Kevin Owens as the cocky bad guy that he is and by showing Sami look conflicted. We see it in their faces, in their body language, and in their wrestling scenes. The scenes of action in the ring always look great in these issues and this issue is no different.
This story is being told so well by Dennis Hopeless and this issue had me engaged through the entire issue. The behind the scenes conversations that Hopeless has written for these characters in this issue are dramatic and emotional and add to the story that we already know from watching it play out in the ring. All of that along with Serg Acuña’s artwork comes together to make a fantastic comic book about some amazing characters in riveting situations.
A Look Inside
