In honor of our site’s reopening, I decided to take a look back at my review of Danijel Zelelj’s ‘Rex’ that was posted a few years back in 2008 but lost in the fray.

Rex tells the story of a former hero cop named Bill Orlowski who, after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit and then breaking out of jail, embarks on a mission of personal revenge in a vendetta against those who set him up. While the character’s name is actually Orlowski, he goes the much more ferocious and primal name of Rex for most of the story which really fits well with both his mission and his character.

This comic is written and drawn by acclaimed artist Danijel Zelelj, whose past work includes titles from DC, Vertigo and Marvel, who does a fantastic job at showing why he is one of the best black and white artists in the business. On top of that, he crafts a superb story to accompany his artwork that really makes the reader root for the underdog. The story moves around quite a bit and covers a lot of ground in the seventy pages that it runs which includes Orlowski’s arrest, his time in prison, the breakout and finally his quest for revenge against those who wronged him. The thing about the story is that it doesn’t feel rushed or condensed. Zelelj does a great job of stretching out his story and explaining everything without stalls or unnecessary gaps in the storytelling.

Orlowski’s character is also developed very nicely as well. We’re shown his background as a highly decorated hero on the police force and then, in contrast, his arrest and former friends trying to convince the public that it was all a masquerade. This then sends Orlowski, now going by the name of Rex, into a spiral of hate which ultimately transforms him into the very thing that they were trying to convince people he was. In this way, he becomes the tragically misunderstood anti-hero that, instead of trying to clear his name or do anything remotely rational, must throw it all away to wrong those who wronged him.

Overall, Rex is a wonderfully drawn and maturely bleak tale that will probably put off some of the comic fans with a weak violence threshold. On the flip-side of that, the mature comic fans out there that have read other crime drama style comics will undoubtedly find themselves right at home with Rex. If you’re interested in picking up a copy, visit a shop near you or visit Optimum Wound’s website for more ways to get your hands on a copy.

“There’s only one bullet left, but it might be just right for you.”
-Rex

8/10

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