In 1999, the World Wrestling Federation did a deal with publisher CHAOS! Comics to produce a bunch of comic book based on their various WWF Superstars. This included a Undertaker series that lasted several issues, along with a few one shots based on Mankind, Chyna, and The Rock. None of these comics have anything to do with wrestling, but rather take these characters on zany adventures outside their comfort zone. Undertaker fighting actual demons… Rock dealing with fixed fights… Chyna doing bodyguard work for other people… that sort of thing.
And then there was the Stone Cold Steve Austin miniseries… yes, a miniseries that lasted four issues… and once again, this has nothing to do with Austin delivering Stone Cold Stunners to other WWF Superstars or giving beer baths to Vince McMahon, but rather we’ve got Austin in the role of mysterious stranger coming into a Texas town owned by a less-than-honest Texas owner doing bad things. Your classic modern-day western of sorts… except instead of mysterious strange, you have Stone Cold Steve Austin, who has the ability to command a small crowd of townspeople fearing for their lives to give him a Hell Yeah whenever he calls for it. It’s simply amazing.
I mean… hell, when you think about it, the story itself is rather pedestrian and uninteresting. There’s a certain mystery surrounding someone who was run out of town, but that’s secondary to Austin beating up thugs and not selling a damn thing. They throw attack choppers and biker gangs his way and he blows through all of them. This would have been fine for a one-shot, but four issues is stretching it and there’s only so many ways you can depict Stone Cold opening various cans of whoop ass and stomping various mudholes through many asses before it gets a bit tiresome.
There’s a reference to The Corporation – the faction headed by Vince McMahon – but don’t expect any other WWF talent to actually show up in these books. I guess there was no artist on earth who would dare draw HHH and his big gonzo nose. Speaking of which, the art is alright. The action bits are well depicted, seeing Stunners on the drawn page look somewhat impactful, and the layouts are fairly clean by late-90s comic standards.
It’s not exactly a great comic by any means. The joke pretty much runs itself through the dirt about two issues and by the time you reach the end, it’s just… eh. That said, if you ever wanted a comic about Stone Cold Steve Austin being a total badass who’s nigh impervious to pain, then this is the book for you. They’re an amusing curiosity if nothing else, but not much more than that… which more than sums up the entirety of the WWF/CHAOS! Comics partnership if I’m being totally honest.
dtm666 