Clobberin’ Time #2 Review

Written by: Steve Skroce
Art by: Steve Skroce
Colors by: Bryan Valenza
Letters by: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover art by: Steve Skroce, Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: April 26, 2023

Clobberin’ Time #2 finds Bewn Grimm giving a guest lecture on Krakoa when the time-space thief pops up to steal a uniquely Krakoan beverage.

Is It Good?

Any writer worth their salt will tell you humor is hard, and finding a writer who can pull off humor in comics is as rare as finding Bigfoot wandering around a city mall, so count your blessings when you find a comic that’s funny. Steve Skroce gets the humor (mostly) right in Clobberin’ Time #2, and it’s a darn entertaining comic if you have a specific sense of humor.

When last we left ol’ Ben Grimm, he was forced to team up with the Hulk on an alien world after getting teleported away by a thief invading the Baxter Building using time-space warping tech. Now, Ben visits Krakoa, home of the X-Men and mutant kind, to give a speech on superhero relations when the thief pops up again to steal something that can only be found in Krakoa.

Watch out! Steve Skroce’s script flips from referential satire to wackiness to absurdity and back again, but the plot is more complete than it seems. Through the thief’s actions and taunts, we learn he hails from a future decimated by the age of superheroes, and his mission aims to correct the past to save his future, even if that correction means mass destruction. It’s not clear yet what the thief intends to do with the objects he’s collecting, but it doesn’t look good, so this issue significantly increases the stakes of the thief’s actions.

Still, the gem of this issue is the surprisingly wide range of Skroce’s humor. Skroce makes fun of leftist buzzwords, cancel culture, hipsterisms, tattoos, and hero worship. Every ideological group gets poked, and it’s a sight to behold. In fairness, not every joke sticks the landing, but they all come close. If your tastes in humor involve making fun of anything and everything that a reasonable person would consider absurd, you’re in for a good time. Readers who are more sensitive about their personal ideologies may get offended. And readers who aren’t fans of subversive satire may find this issue a bit tone-deaf. Read at your own risk.

The art is the art. Skroce has a unique style that works for the irreverent tone of this issue, but I’d understand if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Skroce’s line work is solid, and his figure work is remarkably consistent, despite the uniquely stylized aesthetic.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Clobberin’ Time #2 leans into the satire to poke fun at everyone and everything about modern culture while delivering a rock-solid adventure about a thief from the future who may be intent on rewriting the past. The jokes (mostly) land, Skroce’s unique art style suits the script, and the plot is deceptively intriguing.