ROMEO vs. JULIET: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure, cool expansion of Shakespeare's story

ROMEO vs. JULIET: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure
ANTHONY DEL COL (art by Stefan Tosheff)
Gemstone Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$17.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The world's most famous lovers are now sworn enemies dueling to the death!

In this Shakespearean Western, warrior-for-hire (and pregnant) Juliet Capulet is hired to protect a border town nunnery from the evil forces led by her ex Romeo. As they prepare, she reluctantly reunites with her old allies, including Hamlet, Othello, Puck (a “Magnificent Shakespeare Seven”) but they soon discover something rotten in the state of the nunnery and a magical force that dreams are made on… all while Juliet must determine if the father of her child is Hamlet… or the man she must kill, Romeo.

Pulitzer Prize-winner writer Anthony Del Col (Luke Cage: Everyman, I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp) and artist Stefan Tosheff bring reboot Kill Shakespeare with this fantasy Western that's tailor-made for fans of Neil Gaiman, Fables and Lore Olympus.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Rebooting a comics series, that was itself a riff on the works of Shakespeare? These guys got big brass ones! I'm not the most dedicated fan of comic-book art (stop laughing) so I wasn't expecting much when, on a whim, I downloaded this murderous, vengeful Juliet out to kill Romeo (whose child she's bearing), in sequential art form.

That's some kinetic, powerful art. I will admit freely that I don't feel I *get* what y'all do when looking at this art, but it was clear enough for me to follow the storyline, and I really enjoyed the read.

Since Turkey Day requires us to really dig deep into our memories of Love and Kindness to survive the onslaught of togetherness, the narcissism of small differences in Freud's pithy formulation, do a bit of relief-valving by reading what could on this day of total excess feel like wish fulfillment.

I can't get past something to offer a perfect score: Juliet looks very blunt, very not-noble to my eyes. YMMV of course. I really enjoy retellings, more often than not, and Shakespeare's ripe for the retelling and reimagining. His plays were a chore to read for me...don't like plays as reading material too much...but what stories he told! Reusing the ideas of the greatest storytellers seems an excellent idea to me. Enjoy the ride!