Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Mark Dos Santos
Colourist: Salvatore Aiala Studios
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

A Train Called Love #9 sounds like the sort of thing that was produced wholesale in the 1950’s and I half expected the cover to be some sappy Moon and June scene with a cute blonde co-ed waving a tearful goodbye to her crew-cut all-American hunk as his locomotive pulls out of the station and promising to wait forever until his return.

Then I remembered this is the brainchild of Garth Ennis of Preacher and Punisher fame and any lingering sentimentality is soon drowned in a welter of blood, profanity, racist insults and a bonkers plot that makes little or no sense, especially if you’ve come to A Train Called Love #9 late like I have, but who cares?

You did hear me say that this is Garth Ennis, right? If you know anything at all about Ennis’ work you will know to expect the unexpected. Our heroes are butt naked throughout, the villain is a corpse-like Nazi, the violence is extreme, the dialogue is potty-mouthed and the sentiments expressed are, we hope, not representative of the views of the creator, the publisher or any sane and rational person.

From beginning to end, A Train Called Love #9 is one long bloodbath and I would strongly recommend you read the previous eight issues if you want to make any sense of it. Or, you could just buy this issue and revel in the inspired insanity that makes Garth Ennis so revered by so many. Objectionable on so many levels, A Train Called Love is, nonetheless, a masterpiece in a comic book industry usually obsessed with X that a New Universe that.

If you would like to stop being a sheep in your comic book buying habits, A Train Called Love #9 would be a good place to start.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker