As Sands Through the Hourglass, So Are the Days of Goon’s Life

Much like a daytime soap opera, “The Goon: Calamity of Conscience,” gets hot quickly and stays that way throughout. A slight deviation from the usual crime-noir and slapstick comedy writer Eric Powell is known for, this trade will have twisting and turning throughout in simultaneous shock and delight.

With Labrazio on his tail and the return of several other characters [of both hero and villain nature] back into the fold, things move incredibly quick in this one, giving it the feel of a ’40s run and gun love story. With the turn of each page, you’ll expect another character to pop up from oblivion and more drama to unfold. Taking a step back from the usual pacing Powell provides, you never expect so many things to happen over the course of just a few issues.

The biggest surprise being one that you’d almost never expect.

It’s also a great way of showing that the characters’ rogues gallery is a lot more devious and deep than you’d think.

With Goon cleaning up the streets, trying to reclaim his power, [shown brilliantly as always thanks to excellent pencils by Powell and colors by Dave Stewart] one character in particular shows up, literally out of the blue and rocks the entire story, making for one of the most memorable moments in the series thus far.

It’s such a powerful and thought-provoking appearance that it’ll have you thinking that Powell should give up comic book writing to pen some episodes of “The Young and the Restless,” but only for a second- until you realize that only a tremendously gifted comic scribe could put a story like this together.

The events that take place afterward, which at times retain the fun and cheeky motif Powell has used to hook his readers for years, while others are either emotionally powerful and extra gritty, are sure to change the series forever and continue the trend of not knowing what to expect. Showing a softer side in previous trades and recently coming to grips with the fact that he has no turning back if he is to ever keeps his friends safe, Goon is at a constant crossroads- this in essence is what makes this trade something special.

Goon knows what he must do, but knows it’ll end up destroying him in the process and prevent him being as happy as he knows he could be.

Guess sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

With selflessness and courage and some white knuckle mayhem sprinkled in, the Goon makes Lonely Street a safe place, and in the end, that’s what he was born to do. Seeing him come to grips with that mission is perhaps the best reason to pick this trade up.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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