WWE Smackdown #1
Written by: Kevin Paneeta
Illustrated by: Kendall Goode & Serg Acuña
Boom! Studios
2019
Becky Lynch, The Man, is ready to be part of the new Friday Night Smackdown. As she prepares for the big moment, Becky finds herself in a backstage adventure, encountering WWE Legends; Undertaker, the Hardy Boyz, Kurt Angle, and others, side by side with the current Smackdown Roster. Join Becky Lynch backstage of WWE SMACKDOWN as she explores the best that WWE has to offer! Featuring a super-sized 25 page story from Kevin Panetta (WWE) and Kendall Goode (WWE: Undertaker), this will have you ready for the premiere of Smackdown Live! on FOX, October 4.
As you can tell from my weekly wrestling blog, Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review, each week here on Florida Geek Scene, I am a massive fan of pro wrestling. I had known about the Boom Studios’ WWE line of comics since it began, but this one shot special was the first one I had picked up and read and honestly, after reading this issue, I don’t think I will be checking out the others.
The writing of this comic makes me believe that this line of comics is aimed mainly at young kids, hence the very simplistic writing and cheesy, cartoonish dialogue. This style fits well with the comedy characters, but not so well for everyone else. I do, however, feel that the writer, Kevin Paneeta, did capture Becky’s manner of speaking very well. While the main storyline of Becky and the current roster attempting to confront the veteran/legendary wrestlers over TV time didn’t interest me, I did find the subplot of The New Day trying to get to the arena through L.A. traffic to be amusing, especially with Big E making pancakes in the car on the way there. R-Truth dressing like Gangrel to get close to Edge and Heavy Machinery starting a brawl also made me chuckle.
As I mentioned earlier, these guys are comedy characters and thus they benefited from a story like this. One thing I found interesting was that these comics must be written way ahead of time as Becky is referred to as “Becky Two Belts” even though the events of this story is supposed to take place the day of Smackdown’s debut on Fox on October 4th. Becky hasn’t been a double champion since losing the Smackdown Women’s Championship at Money in the Bank back in May almost five months earlier.
The art quality is a mixed bag. On one page you would have fantastic, detailed artwork of the wrestlers and then on the next they would look like ugly, simple caricatures. I believe that this is mostly due the fact that there were two different artists (Goode & Acuña) working on this comic and, to me, their styles did not mesh well. The inconsistency of the artwork’s quality threw me off and took me out of the story at times.
Overall, this comic was not for me. If you have a young kid who likes comics and WWE, this comic may appeal to them, but for older fans, like myself, it may come off as too cheesy and simple.
WWE Smackdown #1
Good for younger fans, not so much for older readers.
Nicholas Slade
Nicholas grew up reading J.R.R. Tolkien's books, watching Disney and Studio Ghibli films, and reading Marvel comics and Japanese manga. The superb storylines and characters ignited his passion for writing. He graduated from Full Sail University in 2015 with a BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment. During his writing career thus far, Nicholas has had numerous short stories and articles published in an array of literary magazines and websites.
