Review #13: "Holy Impossibility, Batman!"

"Snake eyes! Ha! I'm so clever."

Title: Divisible By Zero
Artist: Giando Sigurani
Collective: DrunkDuck
Genre: Comedy/Politics/Gaming
Updates: Unknown
Link: http://www.divisiblebyzerocomics.com

With this strip, it appears that five out of the past six reviews I've done involve comedy in some way. And about three of those past four in the comedy genre have ranged from "decent" to "OH PLEASE ALLAH SAVE US FROM THIS MONSTER!"* As I read the first few strips of DBZ, I was prepared to place this comic in the latter category. But as I soldiered on through the archives, the art got somewhat better, and so did the humor.

There are a few recurring themes in between the one-shot strips, such as the stealth action heroes (featuring Solid Snake, Sam Fisher, Agent 47 and Batman in the same room) and the Political Spectrum Ninja Association, with the liberal ninja who fights with spoons, a conservative ninja who fights with some stretchy object and a gray "moderate" ninja who just eats pie.

And as for the rest of the strips, they're pretty hit-and-miss. Some of the humor seems inspired from Mr. Sigurani's life, while others are just completely random (like a Chick-Fil-A chicken nugget containing the secret to universal peace). Perhaps if he updated a bit more often, future readers would have something to look forward to. But being a one-shot comic with an uncertain updating schedule is not quite a recipe for success.

Short review? Yes. But most of the important points have been hit. Without further adieu, let's move on to the lazy-ass summary.

Art: 3/5 (Has a slight Matt Groening feel to it, but I've seen better).
Story: 1.5/5 (As I said, it's mostly one-shot strips aside from a few recurring themes)
Humor: 3/5 (The humor is mostly hit-or-miss, and the humor in many of later strips depends on your political preference).
Action: 3.5/5 (Plenty of slapstick humor to be found, and some of the action scenes with the Political Ninjas are surprisingly well done)
Characters: 2/5 (Outside of Sigurani's self-insertion, and the political ninjas, you probably won't remember the characters)
Overall (not an average): 5.5/10
Evil Stuff: Mostly cartoon violence with some occasional blood.
Final Thoughts: Sigurani's strip contains some original humor, but just not enough to make Divisible By Zero bookmark-worthy.

(*My apologies to any religious readers who were offended. Please don't firebomb my house.)

Update (7/14/06): Apparently, two days after I reviewed Divided By Zero, the "Political Spectrum Ninja Association" aspect of this comic was selected as a semi-finalist in Platinum Studios' Comic Book Challenge. If I may paraphrase a line from The Colbert Report, obviously, it was all my fault. My "average" review of Sigurani's work must have thrown him into such a rage that his angry aura somehow transported via his submission to the people judging this contest that they had to let him go to the next round.

I would wish him luck, but as a reviewer, I make an effort to stay impartial. Besides, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert again, you don't win by putting down other people, you win by berating your own team, maybe even physically abusing them or throwing a chair onto the basketball court a la Bobby Knight. If you don't have a team, then I'm sure Jesus' General will lend you his "Terrible Spatula of Retribution" and you can do it to yourself.