Step Into The Ring – Review Of Heart #1

Blair Butler is 33 years old. In her time on this planet, she has managed to graduate from college, find some success in stand-up comedy, become head writer of a television show, and, eventually, find her way in front of the camera as the star of her own segment on G4’s Attack Of The Show called Fresh Ink. Oh, and if that’s not an already impressive list of accomplishments, this past week, Butler published her first comic book, Heart #1, with art by Kevin Mellon. She used it, she told Comic Book Resources, as an opportunity to bring together her love of comic books with her love of mixed martial arts fighting:

Most of my co-workers love the NFL, but MMA is my sporting poison. I talk about Anderson Silva and GSP [Georges St-Pierre] the way other folks talk about the Packers or the Bears, I’m like the Paul Aufiero of MMA — he’s the football-obsessed parking lot attendant in ‘Big Fan.’ And there’s sort of an interesting analogy to be made to superhero comics and mixed martial arts, if Batman or The Punisher were real, they’d likely be training MMA to get in proper crime-fighting shape. The Huntress would be subduing muggers with a rear naked choke or a spinning backfist.

Well, I’m 39. I like comic books, occasionally workout to Rachel Hunter’s Cardio Kickboxing Workout and this past Saturday I made the world safe from a bottle of Ketel One by turning it into pee.

So there. I am neither writing comic books nor subduing muggers with my terrifying spinning backfist.

Pardon me while I crack open another bottle of self-esteem. Ok, now let me tell you about the comic book.

Warning before entering the Internet octagon – soul searching, temp work and spoilers after the jump.

Heart follows the story of one Oren Redmond. In 2007, Oren is a community college dropout, who is feeling empty and directionless in his temp job. His older brother, however, has a reasonably successful career as a MMA fighter in the Kansas City area. One thing leads to another and Oren himself is getting into the ring. By 2009, he has a nickname, “Rooster”, devoted fans and what appears to be a successful career of his own. So, why does he seem to still be empty?

Oh, those pesky life choices. Damn them.

Butler’s affection for MMA is clearly evident in this book, primarily in the plotting of the script she’s put together, in which Kevin Mellon’s art illustrates the main points of her story. Book one focuses on Oren’s entrance into the world of MMA through his brother. Her story does tend toward text heavy exposition, placed in the panels within narrative boxes, with Mellon providing the action through his art.

That first day, I puked twice. Once after doing the first conditioning circuit and once after getting kicked in the gut by the biggest asshole there.

The other guys didn’t say much to me. They’d seen enough other people come in once – and never come back – that they didn’t even bother making introductions anymore.

Wow, between those quotes and learning that a typical MMA cage match is getting the shit kicked out of you in front of an audience who’ve paid to watch your humiliation for five solid minutes, I’d say MMA fights sound an awful lot like breaking in stand-up on the open mic circuit…with fewer kicks to the junk and a greater likelihood of getting paid at the end of the show. Maybe Butler likes this sport for more than the sheer athleticism of it.

At the end of the day, as a individual who knows nothing about MMA, but loves comic books, would I continue to buy this book? Yes, if only that by reading the story of Oren as he develops into the established fighter we meet at the start of the first book, we can watch to see how Butler develops as a writer by the end of this miniseries in the fourth book. And, it’s cheaper than a cage match on pay-per-view.