Acid Chimp Vs. Business Dog #1 Review: Ridiculous Missed Potential

Crossover comics are interesting things, often bringing together unlikely characters for compelling adventures that offer readers—in an ideal circumstance—the best that the two fandoms have to offer, whether the story is simply fun or thought provoking. When it comes to Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog, there are certainly aspects of that concept in the unexpected crossover between My Bad and Billionaire Island,which sees a superhero parody (My Bad) collide with an economic dystopia (Billionaire Island). Unfortunately, while both premises are independently funny and sharply incisive satires with a lot to say about the world, when you combine them and put their animal stars together, the result is a story that loses its bite. It leaves readers with something that is unfamiliar unless they are a big fan of both series; that winds up feeling as superficial and superfluous as the society they seek to skewer.

Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog starts out with Acid Chimp and only the barest of explanations as to who he is: a chimp with a penchant for flinging acid. The primate is being apprehended, presumably by animal control agents, only it turns out the reason for this is not the safety of the public at large—after all, this chimp is the pet of a supervillain—but he's being essentially chimp-napped for a fee by members of The Board over on Billionaire Island who hope to use him to get rid of the world's richest dog, Business Dog, who has capitalism in his paws. If that sounds ridiculous it's because it is, but it's par for the course for both My Bad and Billionaire Island, which are both built on their ridiculousness, usually to excellent effect.

The issue here, however, is that nothing really holds. Acid Chimp's kidnapping is little more than a few superficial gags and comments that never scratch much in the way of surface when it comes to human society he exists in while, on Billionaire Island, we just get a bit of telling about how Business Dog can't really be defeated and a few visuals about how absolutely ridiculous hyper-capitalism is. There are a few silly moments where, instead of attacking Business Dog, Acid Chimp winds up an ally who protects him from a deranged ruined businessman, but he's quickly dispatched to Hollywood, the end. While both My Bad and Billionaire Island are comic books with incisive commentary, this mashup doesn't really seem to have any. More than that, so little actually happens in the issue that the whole thing feels less like a story and more like a fun vanity project – an inside joke making sense primarily to the creative team.

While story itself is lacking except perhaps, for the biggest fans of both series, the comic book does shine in terms of artwork. The story is divided into two parts with Peter Krause providing art for the first and Steve Pugh providing art for the second; Chris Chuckry provides outstanding colors throughout. Visually, Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog is fantastic. The two art styles blend seamlessly together from one part to the next and while the story isn't perhaps quite there, there's a lot to enjoy with the detail of the artwork – particularly the facial expressions of the various characters throughout that all set a crystal clear tone and giving the story some sense of cohesion.

Overall, Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog is a crossover of missed potential. What could have been an interesting expansion of both My Bad and Billionaire Island's unique satire and social commentary instead falls flat with a story that feels more like nonsense than anything else. But at least it's good-looking nonsense, which might be a message of its own.

Published by Ahoy Comics

On January 10, 2024

Written by Bryce Ingman and Mark Russell

 Art by Peter Krause and Steve Pugh

Colors by Chris Chuckry

Letters by Rob Steen

Cover by Steve Pugh