Publisher: Image
Writer: Jody Leheup & Sebastian Girner
Artist: Nil Vendrell
Colourist: Mike Spicer
Release Date: Out now
Price: Print/Digital $3.99

Wanna know what a bear does in the woods? Shirtless Bear Fighter #3 lays it on the line for you as Shirtless is held captive by dastardly deforestation megalomaniac Jaxson Logger in the Fuzzy Wipes toilet paper factory.

Hold on a second: BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HAAAA! ’Scuse me, I can barely read the rest of Shirtless Bear Fighter #3 because I’m laughing too much. Agent Suzanne Silva has to save Shirtless before Logger (Snort!) completely destroys the entire woodland habitat that Shirtless has sworn to protect. Enfeebled by the application of his version of Kryptonite, (no, honestly, I won’t tell you what it is, it’s just too chuckle-worthy to spoil) Shirtless and Suzanne have to fight their way to freedom before a base betrayal sends Shirtless to sleep with the fishes and right into the most unexpected family reunion of all.

Along the way in Shirtless Bear Fighter #3, we get to see some of Shirtless’s past life, especially his lost love, Clementine, and the deadly relationship his love fostered between Shirtless, Brother Bear and Logger (Giggle), but that is the only remotely normal bit in the entire Shirtless Bear Fighter #3.

But this comic book is endlessly inventive, gloriously irreverent, slapstick funny and courageously and incredibly original. Jody Leheup & Sebastian Girner have given us an homage, a pastiche and a total send-up of every po-faced super-hero scenario you have ever read.

Shirtless Bear Fighter #3 is a sheer delight and if you only read two comic books this month make sure it is Shirtless Bear Fighter #3 twice! You will not be disappointed.

 

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker