Wrestle Heist

Any new series by Kyle Starks is a reason for me to celebrate, especially when he draws it as well. I love his pacing, dialogue, and way of weaving familiar pop culture tropes into new and interesting tales. Wrestle Heist features Sterling Steele, a former professional wrestler who has been done wrong by a crooked promoter. In order to get some revenge and also give him a proper nest-egg, he sets out to rob the box office haul from the biggest event of the year. 

In order to pull off a job of this scope, he needs a crew, and a lot of the fun in this book comes from the powerful personalities of that crew, including luminaries like Gravedigger and Bearwolf. Their interactions and relations are nuanced, peppered with snappy patter and well-developed backstories. If it was not clear enough that this book is a love letter to 1970s/80s professional wrestling, the book also features plenty of back matter that hilariously parodies the pro wrestling magazines of the era. I cackled out loud at them more than once. This book has it all: thrills, action, and laughs, plenty enough to suit fans of pro wrestling and/or crime caper tales. I daresay its my favorite Starks book yet.

Every review I have read about this series has been positive. Mike Eakins called it "a masterclass in storytelling." Chris Coplan wrote, "The character work is not only interesting, but it bucks expectations." Fred Morlan opined, "Stark has a singular genius for writing bizarre idiots."

Wrestle Heist was published by Image Comics, and they offer a preview and more information about it here.