2099 Week presents Ravage 2099 #1!

Ravage 2099 #1

SUMMARY

We open up to a guy running from a group on sky motorcycles called the Eco Patrol. He attempts to run into the sewers but is cut off and gets killed while proclaiming that he will never surrender. The Eco Patrol radioed in to Eco Central that they have neutralized the threat, but their boss, our main character Ravage, is not happy they didn't apprehend the man alive. He wants one of the polluters arrested so they can be questioned to find out who their leaders are.
Ravage then thinks there might be a traitor in Alchemax and thinks of warning them, but is warned by his secretary that her father tried the same thing and got sentenced to Hellrock a place full of creatures called Mutroids and was never seen again and she doesn't want that to happen to Ravage.

But he has none of it because he believes in Alchemax and without Alchemax the city would revert to anarchy and that thanks to his dedication he got his job. He also ignores when Tiana, the aforementioned secretary, states that he is practically a figurehead and was put in charge because he is too dense to even suspect how corrupt Alchemax is. We then cut to the parking lot where Ravage is ambushed by three men who try to mug him but get beat down for it. They only get away because one of them claims that he isn't an innocent and is responsible for his father getting killed in the sewers earlier today. He also claims that his father wasn't even a polluter but was just a guy going to Ravage’s office to tell him that he knows who was behind most of the pollution when Eco Patrol ambushed him.

The kid thinks Ravage ordered the hit, but he proclaims that he did no such thing but decides that he better check out the story at Alchemax right now that he heard it and he is taking the kid, who gives his name as Dack, with him. Later, we see a fat business man preparing to decide which holographic girl he wants to be with for a virtual reality session when Ravage and Dack come in through the door. They tell him about Dack’s belief that someone in Alchemax ordered his dad killed to cover up a conspiracy. The businessman, who Ravage calls Mr. Henton, says that he is shocked at the news and will get to the bottom of it and sends them on his way. One of his workers asks if that could be true and Mr. Henton immediately pulls out some kind of weapon and shoots him out of a window due to him hearing too much. He then calls Tiana and tells her to set up a conference call between him, the other directors of Alchemax, and her boss Ravage and to put it in a way so that only those people can listen in on the call.

Tiana does so, but secretly listens in on it since she suspects that this call has something to do with Ravage’s visit. Meanwhile Mr. Henton tells the other board members that Ravage is getting too suspicious and they must end him to protect themselves and everyone agrees. He then decides to bring in a Mutroid from Hellrock to frame Ravage since he is too much of a public figure to just get rid right now. Tiana having over hear all this decides to go find her boss and warn him of Alchemax’s plans. There is a brief scene showing a submarine dropping off the Mutroid in question before cutting back to Ravage and Dack who have been walking around for hours since Ravage is trying to get the latter to cool off. But Dack has none of it since he suspects that Ravage’s actions are gonna get him killed now.

Ravage brushes it off as kids having no respect for authority or their elders and heads to his office where the Mutroid is doing the same. Ravage enters his office where Tiana tries to warn him of what is about to happen, but he still refuses that Alchemax can do any wrong when the Mutroid breaks open his door. Tiana realizes that this Mutroid is here to start the fall of Ravage who immediately calls for security upon seeing the creature. The Mutroid then loudly proclaims that he is here to pay Ravage for doing a great job of betraying Alchemax. Ravage is shocked by this and tries to rebut it, but is interrupted by the security officers he called and they overheard everything and declare that Ravage is under arrest! But Ravage simply beats them all up.

Mr. Henton watches all of this and is amazed by how much of a fighter Ravage, but declares that he must die and orders the Mutroid to kill him. Ravage immediately grabs Tiana and jumps out of a window to evade the creature, which is a good thing as the entire room explodes. Mr. Henton declares Ravage must be dead and prepares to send the tape to the world so that everyone thinks that Ravage was a traitor, but first he must kill his massage therapist who overheard the whole thing. Unfortunately for Mr. Henton, Ravage lives and is hanging for his life while making sure Tiana doesn’t fall as well. He then swings them through a window right below and manages to get both of them away from the building without being caught.

Ravage then takes her to an apartment building, along with Dack, and declares the two will be safer away from him and gives them enough cash so they can live her for a while before heading off to a junkyard where he proceeds to make a costume and grab some makeshift weapons and armor. He then spots a very outdated garbage truck that is somehow in working condition despite having been there for decades since it has wheels unlike the flying cars everyone has. And the comic ends on Hellrock where an oracle warns a Doctor Doom esque character called Dethstryk that he will be meeting up a guy called Ravage who could possibly bring him down.

REVIEW

Yeah, this isn’t very good. A lot of the whole pollution is vague and we only get snippets of the problem. Heck, the pollution angle is just treated as a reason for Ravage to part of Alchemax and later realize that they are no good. Mr. Henton is ridiculous with him callously killing people for very little good reason, he didn’t have to schedule his massage at the same time as Ravage is suppose to be taken down (Also, I am pretty sure there were other witnesses in the room overheard Ravage saying there might be traitors, but he only kills the guy who asks if it is possible) or going to ridiculous lengths to frame and kill Ravage. He seriously couldn’t have hired a guy to pretend to be the polluters Ravage was after and make the claim that the latter is selling information to the former or he could have just blown up Ravage’s room as soon as the Mutroid claim Ravage is a traitor on tape?

Ravage isn’t all that great of a protagonist as he is too stupid, his actions go beyond someone who is just blindly loyal, and the whole thing was caused by him not thinking carefully about what to do next. Also, how did that truck still have fossil fuel in it since those can expire after a year or so. I am not one hundred percent when they expire but I am pretty sure they would have expired by now. And if it doesn’t run on fossil fuel, then why does it look like it is from the late 20th-early 21st century?

Tiana is okay, since she actually has some brains. But it is ruined by her not getting that Ravage is not gonna listen to reason. Dack is also kind of a stereotypical street kid who doesn’t contribute much beyond giving Ravage a reason to go confront Alchemax. Although, he seemed to be going there anyway. Also, there was the same coloring issues Spider-Man 2099 at the start. The guy running away and the Eco Patrol chasing him were colored yellow and blue. I guess the yellow is suppose to be him covered by the searchlights and the blue is him covered in darkness. But it doesn’t actually continue on throughout the story.

Here is the good portions for the comic beyond Tiana being a decent character. Ravage is most certainly a badass, if the fight with the police was a bit contrived in his favor, and we do get a decent setup of Hellrock even though Dethstryk looks and sounds stupid. And despite it being ridiculous that he would go to a junkyard to get anything at all for the purpose of taking down Alchemax...the tire plate as a shield looks cool. Everything else about the outfit is kind of silly I’m afraid.

So overall, a pretty bad issue with not much going for it. So I give Ravage 2099 #1 4 Garbage Trucks out of 10.  Next, we continue onto good stories with the conclusion of the origin of Spider-Man 2099!