Noam Chomsky it ain’t.

With Evil Empire, Max Bemis is out to show how the United States could become an evil empire. Not sure exactly why he didn’t base it off of other societies who became “evil empires,” seeing as how there are two or three really good examples from the twentieth century alone.

Instead, Bemis does a liberal’s pipe dream about a Republican admitting to murder, in front of a cross no less.

Bemis has his leads–the secretly earnest white guy Democrat who wants to date–professionally and personally–this Beyonce-like underground political rapper. Empire isn’t just not Noam Chomsky, it isn’t just not “West Wing,” it’s not even Mars Attacks! in terms of rational political imagination.

Not to be too negative, of course. Bemis’s dialogue is okay about thirty percent of the time and Ransom Getty’s art’s fine about seventy. The comic’s just a moronic idea.

D+ 

CREDITS

Writer, Max Bemis; artist, Ransom Getty; colorist, Chris Blythe; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editors, Jasmine Amiri and Dafna Pleban; publisher, Boom! Studios.