Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore and Andre Parks
Published by Vertigo
By all rights, not only should this be the worst comic of the week, it should be the worst issue of a series still in it's infancy. Surprisingly, not only is it not the worst, it came out on top this week. After spending 8 issues only hinting that his blue collar dramatic study of mildly stupid exterminators may have more fantastic problems than its characters basic pursuit of alcohol and sex, Oliver pulled back the sheets on his pull-out couch of a narrative to reveal that not only can he be really, really weird, but that he can make really weird seem really smart.
Throughout the last 9 months, Oliver has introduced a strangely interesting troop of characters, loosely surrounding his main protagonist, an ex-con turned exterminator with the requisite heart of gold. Oliver's followed this sweetheart through the collapse of a marriage,(lesbian boss seduced his wife) the drug related death of a co-worker, and into a burgeoning relationship with a literary prostitute. (His girlfriend pretends to be Aldous Huxley, or whomever the client requests, for a tidy sum. In a library.) Meanwhile, each issue has hinted that, at some point, the roaches that the boys keep gassing are somehow becoming both organized, and because it is a comic book, evil. Each issue has been like a risky balancing act--is this going to be the one where the roaches actually become the focus, or will it be another hilarious excursion through Buddhist revenge with our hero's new partner, and that partners cowboy hat?
Issue 9 decided to go, full boat, into the roaches. Yet not only did it maintain the ridiculously entertaining dialog of issues 1-8, it managed to make political parallels to the Iraq war without seeming either stupidly liberal, or stupidly offensive. It would be exhausting, both in the writing and the reading, to re-hash all that occurred in the issue, but rest assured that not only does one get ones money's worth, it's likely you'll want to count the pages to make sure the issue didn't have extra. The biggest complaint about Vertigo comics in 2006 seems to be that they sneak under the radar until they become hugely popular at issue 30, when it seems to late to jump on board. In the case of Exterminators, the next big thing is here, and it's easily available. Don't miss out.
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