Sunday, April 2, 2017

TEX'S BACK-ISSUE QUEST EPISODE #52 (Officer Downe)



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Hey there, again, fellow Questers!!

     It's T to the E to the X, back again to fill your noggin with all that comic book knowledge that you can't get in any college! 

    Today we ride on the wild side with a Frankenstein's Monster-type cop who can't be stopped. This cop is an over-the-top offering from the crazy, creative minds of Joe Casey and Chris Burnham. Here he is: 



It's my copy of "Officer Downe" #1, printed by Image Comics in 2010. It features the first appearance of LAPD Officer, Terrence "Terry" Downe. Officer Downe was a straight-edge, top-flight, law enforcement machine of mayhem who died in the line of duty, only to be resurrected by a secret program. He is the LAPD's secret weapon of mass destruction, the cop they send in to do the jobs no one else can, jobs that will kill other officers. Well...the fact is that sometimes these jobs kill Terry too. But no worries...they just resurrect him once more and put him back on the streets to send the worst criminals six feet under, or blow them sky-high. Whatever it takes to enforce the law, and maintain order - by any means necessary. 

Imagine my surprise when I was scanning through Netflix today and found that "Officer Downe" had been adapted to film by none other than Joe Casey himself? RIGHTEOUS! Check out the trailer (caution: neither the comic, nor the film are for children, or those with tender sensibilities):




Directed by M. Shawn Crahan, one of Slipknot's  insane percussionists, "Officer Downe" is pretty much like the comic, ultra-violent, campy and wildly over-the-top. It's like Judge Dredd, and Maniac Cop had a child that reminded everyone a lot of Officer Tackleberry of those nutty "Police Academy" films. This movie won't be winning any Oscars for sure, but if you take it for what it is, just a bit of a throwback to that old Grindhouse fare, with gratutious sex (two scenes, iirc), an overly-righteous hero (that may just be a bit of a psycho sadist), and some exaggerated, weirdly cool bad guys, like the animal-headed Fortune 500, or my fave, Zen Master Flash, a teleporting techno-ninja assassin, who happens to be a Chinese-speaking black guy, complete with horrible dubbing out of sync with his lips - just like out of an old kung-fu flick. This one has just enough camp, gore, and wild action to become a cult favorite. I dug it. But again, the movie, like the comic IS NOT FOR CHILDREN, nor THOSE WITH TENDER SENSIBILITIES. Okay? Okay. Rock on. Check it out is you have the time, or are so inclined. Drop some comments below about how you felt about the film, the article, or the comic. Be breezy, dudes!

That's all for today! Happy trails!!



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