I Think I'll Pass On More

The Exterminators tpb Vol. 1: Bug Brothers (collecting issues 1-5 of the series)
DC Vertigo
Simon Oliver, writer
Tony Moore, artist
***mature content warning***

This is a book that I was inspired to try based on recommendations I heard listening to comic-themed podcasts. More than once I'd listened to others discuss how much they enjoyed the writing, the art, the story. And I have to admit, despite not much caring for the setting or most of the characters, I did feel a small amount of sympathy for the main character, Henry James, and a small but real curiosity about where the story was headed.

Henry, an ex-convict, is trying to get back on his feet after his stretch in prison. He goes to work for his stepfather, Nils, who owns Bug-Bee-Gone, a pest control company in Los Angeles. The people Henry meets, including some of his new co-workers, are mostly all foul-mouthed degenerates, and the neighborhoods they inhabit are filthy, vermin-infested dumps, to say the least. The Bug-Bee-Gone boys have a new roach gel in their arsenal named Draxx, which has some peculiar properties. This and another subplot involving a mysterious box Henry discovers are what piqued my curiosity the most after reading this first volume.

I decided to research a little more to see just how many volumes were in this series. Maybe if there were just one or two and I could find them cheaply enough, I might continue on. Well my research revealed that the series had run for 30 issues and been collected in a total of five trades. The plan had been for the series to run longer than that, but the book was canceled before it had a chance to go beyond 30. Still, it seemed that the creators knew the end was coming and still wrapped things up, albeit a bit more quickly than originally planned.

What I hadn't counted on in researching how long the book ran, however, was discovering the answers to my questions, both about the box and Draxx. Once I'd read and knew the answers to those questions, I have no real desire to continue reading this story I only marginally cared for, so I doubt I ever seek out the other four trades for this series. I just don't care that much to read them. The art isn't bad, and honestly, the characterizations were pretty consistent and logical for the characters, so I can't really fault the writing either. I just didn't care enough about the characters to keep reading. Let's just say this story wasn't quite my cup of tea.