Mother Russia

by Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite



On to one of my favourites Mother Russia. Nick Fury offers Frank the names and whereabouts of every major criminal in the US if he does a job for him, it involves taking a bio weapon from Russia that can wipe out a human body in a second unfortunately its been injected into a little girl who happens to be in a nuclear silo, so frank journeys to Russia with an action man boy scout whose only job is to complete the mission, which needless to say doesn’t really work out for him, on the bright sides franks almost starts world war 3 to get her out by setting off one of the nukes. By the time he gets her back it’s out of her system and the US generals want to have him arrested because they couldn’t get their weapon. It’s a great laugh.

It feels shorter than the others in the series but that doesn’t mean it has less impact, this is the first one I read with my mouth open, there’s an underlying intensity to it that’s burning in the background.

For the last time Im not the fucking Kingpin,

I will have your balls for this Braithwaite

 

 

The other stories featuring Rawlins really feeds into the government conspiracy stories that everyone seemed to have after 9/11 so you can imagine it actually happening (there’s defiantly a few of you who actually believe that it is happening with the CIA). the whole set up of an Arab American convincing a bunch of religious zealots to kill themselves doesn’t actually sound that farfetched and although you barely see Rawlins it’s an horrifyingly fucked up sight to see someone pull that off, just because that’s the way the world is right now and I’m sure the book made a lot of people wonder 'what if...'

Zakharov is great as the bored Rambo villain general who like Fury, still holds the utmost respect from the soviet but is stuck behind a desk unable to actually do anything, which basically means he's been put out to pasture. He seems to be the only one in the whole of the Russian army that even has a clue what’s actually happening especially when he's dealing with another officer who takes it on face value arguing with Zakharov on everything.

The scene that really touches me is where Frank is losing consciousness after getting the shit kicked out of him by the pygmy, he can feel himself slipping but that darkness in his soul drags him back and at that moment he would do anything to protect that little girl, it’s really touching, to have someone who is so hardcore in his ways to almost soften, it’s almost like he becomes human again instead of the rampant killing machine he has made himself.

To be honesty this whole book is worth reading just for Fury, he's been perfectly realised by Ennis in this book and the man is a classic shit kicker, there’s a presence he commands when around other soldiers who consider him a legend so much so when the MP's are told to arrest them you get the feeling they'd rather take on a pit-bull naked covered bacon than even think about it. To watch him at work is like watching a force of nature you can tell he knows 15 different ways to fuck you up and that’s just through him talking. The fear in the other general’s eyes as their ringleader was being beaten into submission is just a sight to behold, my only complaint about this book is there wasn’t a full page when Fury lays into him, it has just as much impact as any of the gruesome deaths that are in this series.

beaten like a 5 star bitch

 

It’s hard to explain why it’s one of my favourites, despite all its complexities like a possible nuclear war, a bio weapon that can kill in an instance and any number of conspiracy theories you can come up it’s a very basic story and I suppose that’s it secret, it doesn’t need the 101 villain or the millions of guns when it comes down to its just about a man who wants to protect a little girl and that’s something wether you’re a father or not you can identify with.

well I’m going to go fuck every hooker in new York before some asshole bans that too, see you in Up Is Down Black Is White.