Dark Comic Review: Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #2: Two Worlds Enter, One Leaves!
Review by Casey Douglass
In my review of the first issue of Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia, I read about Rory Landell, a wrestler who declared himself to be the “Galactic Champion of the Universe”. By doing this, he managed to piss off not only people on Earth, but also aliens far out in the galaxy, aliens with their own idea of who the champion is: Manifest Destiny. Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #2: Two Worlds Enter, One Leaves! Is set to show how Rory’s words have sent a few pebbles tumbling down the mountain, the avalanche of the whoop-ass to come just starting to rumble in the heights.
In the opening pages of issue two, we are sucked into a flashback scene, one of a young Rory watching his parents argue and bicker sometime in the seventies. He has lots of newspaper clippings of his wrestler dad on his bedroom wall: Terry Landell “The Human Torture Rack”. Not a happy home, and an insight into some of the baggage Rory might be carrying around, baggage masked by his bravado. In the current time, we then see two astronomers picking up on strange craft that seem to be building something around the Earth. Yes, Manifest Destiny has arrived on Earth, to answer Rory’s challenge and to lay down the prospect of a Regal Rumble if Rory refuses the “call of Destiny”. What is a Regal Rumble? Well, think Royal Rumble, but with the population of two planets taking part!
Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #2: Two Worlds Enter, One Leaves! Ratchets up the tension nicely from the first issue. Rory’s bold declaration of being the “Galactic Champion of the Universe” has given him the first direct bite on the backside. As in the previous issue, the clean, colourful art-style and crunching wrestling moves are fun to take in. I particularly enjoyed seeing the alien wrestlers body-slamming a camel in Cairo, and suplexing their way through Whitehouse security personal. It was great to take in some of Rory’s past too, even if, in one scene, he ignores the offer of pornography in a convenience store and opts for a wrestling magazine. I mean, in a magazine about intergalactic wrestlers attacking Earth, I guess there has to be something unbelievable. Chortle.
The humour of the first issue continues to flow in the same pleasing way, particularly with Rory trying to get an elderly woman to remember him in a bar; he even runs out of breath as he reels off his wrestling patter. In the same bar a little later, a cryptic comment is muttered over an unconscious Rory, one that hints at the alien wrestlers not being fully united behind Manifest Destiny. I’m guessing issue three will reveal if this is really the case, and that it might also resolve whether we will get to see a Regal Rumble or not. It will be interesting to find out.
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I was given access to a review copy of this comic.
Comic Book Name: Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia #2 : Two Worlds Enter, One Leaves!
Authors: Ed Kuehnel & Matt Entin
Artist: Dan Schkade
Colouring: Marissa Louise
Lettering: Dave Lanphear
Publisher: Starburns Industries Press
Released: 15 May 2019
Price: $1.99
