After years of being an editor for Skybound, Sean Mackiewicz alongside artist Niko Walter have created the comic Gasolina. Gasolina focuses on Randy and Amalia who are newlyweds doing odd jobs all throughout Mexico. While on one of these odd jobs, the boss’s son, Quique, is kidnapped by the up and coming Los Queridos cartel. Quique is rescued by Randy and Amalia, but once home a mysterious killer bug emerges from him and kills his entire family. This bug was planted by Los Queridos revealing their newest tactic of using them to do their dirty work and eliminate their enemies. It just so happens who Los Queridos is targeting is directly related to Randy and Amalia, resulting in them facing off with this cartel as they are on the rise.
The Good:
Gasolina provides a futuristic look on how cartels in Mexico will handle their feuds with each other and the locals. The comic focuses on a rising cartel, Los Queridos, who is attempting to make a name for them self. The way they are doing this is through kidnapping and placing killer insect creatures into people. They then return the person, after a ransom is paid, to their families and wait for the insect creature to emerge and kill everyone in the vicinity. This grants the cartel immediate strength as they are able to kill many people at once in an environment where they feel safest. As a new cartel this gives them the ability to carve out a nice territory as other cartels do not want to oppose them and their unique killing technique. Furthermore, while this comic is fictional, it is entirely possible that killer insect creatures could be created and implemented in people to kill them and what is around them. The comic is not out of line as to what can happen in the 21st century.
The Bad:
The first issue accomplishes nothing as it provides no set up for the comic series, lacks explanations, and only generates more confusion to the series. Within the first issue Randy and Amalia are newlyweds who have taken odd jobs in order to survive. While on one of these jobs their boss’s son, Quique, is kidnapped by the Los Queridos cartel. Eventually, after Randy and Amalia pay a ransom, he is rescued and returned to his family. Thus, Randy and Amalia’s interaction with Los Queridos is over as there is no reason for them to ever meet again as the situation was resolved. While all of this is occurring, there is no explanation as to who Randy and Amalia are and the skills or connections they process. Rather the comic just states that they know people who can give them information about Los Queridos or can put them into contact with them. Furthermore, the comic implies that Randy and Amalia lack money. Yet, they have enough to pay for Quiqu’se ransom, thus providing no explanation for this either. With no explanation as to who these characters are and the reason why they are doing odd jobs, the comic fails to establish how they are related to the Los Queridos cartel. This makes the comic confusing as there seems to be no direction to where this comic is going and how it will unfold as the story seems self-contained.
The Verdict:
On paper Gasolina looks like an exciting comic, yet it has turned out to be a disappointment. The comic has a great concept in having a cartel rise to power by using killer insect creatures to do their dirty work. While this element of the comic is great the rest of the comic has poor execution. The comic fails to set up any type of story for the arc, it does not provide any explanation to who the characters are, and is massively confusing to a reader who has no information about what is occurring. Furthermore, the first issue reads more along the lines of a one-shot comic as the story is self-contained and anything beyond this issue will feel like it is forced. Gasolina fails to hit the mark as it has too many miss-steps and story holes that leave a reader wondering what is going on in the plot.
