CMYK Reviews

It is interesting that the history of American comic books is so relatively sparse of books centering on sports with the prevalence of sports in American culture. Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang is the most prominent example of a straight sports book that I can think of off the top of my head. I’m aware of some past biographic comics of sports figures along the history of the industry, but short of that, it’s always been part of a mash-up theme.

The Ring is an interesting stab at that. For the first two issues, each one has followed a formula: a short four-page flashback of what may have boxing evolved from along its history (in this issue, two men in the old west fighting over if one would be taken in for a bounty or not), then an introduction of two contenders for the in-universe The Ring championship via two journalists for The Ring magazine.

Boxing is perhaps the most cinematic sport – two people testing themselves directly against each other in a contest that combines strategy and brutality. The fight scenes in these comics are beautiful drawn. I am curious as to exactly how the rest of the series will flow – we haven’t got close to the tournament the book’s built around, and I assume we’re getting at least two more issues of introductions. With an eight issue run, I assume 5-8 will get to the actual tournament, which I’m interested in seeing the presentation of.

I do adore that each A cover so far has referenced a legendary photograph from boxing’s real history. The two to date have looked extremely clean and stand out on new issue walls.

The history of The Ring is complicated, with a history ranging from promoting fabricated records to pump up a Don King tournament in the 70s to being acquired by Turki Al-Sheikh of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, who in turn partnered with TKO’s attempts at launching Zuffa Boxing and in turn the efforts to pass the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act. This does make the branding of the comic, we’ll say, worth noting. I don’t think it directly impacts the quality of the work by Simone et al., but it should be known when it comes to examining why this comic exists at all, but especially now.

The writing is solid, with each new boxer having an interesting backstory and visual design. I’m hoping that as the series progress, we’ll have more to chew on, but so far this has been a solid launch.

The Ring: The Man Who Beat the Man #2
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Elisa Romboli
Colors: Iolanda Zanfardino
Dark Horse Comics