• Home
  • Releases
  • Blog
  • Design
  • Posters
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
  • Privacy Policy

Loser City

Multimedia Collective

  • Home
  • Releases
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Art
  • Submissions
You are here: Home / Features / Eat the Rich: Renato Jones: The One% isn’t as Edgy as it Thinks it is

Eat the Rich: Renato Jones: The One% isn’t as Edgy as it Thinks it is

January 11, 2017 By Nick Hanover Leave a Comment

Renato Jones Kaare Andrews

All throughout Kaare Andrews’ Renato Jones: The One% are flashback sequences made to look “old” through the use of color halftone effects and old paper textures. It’s digitally crafted nostalgia, achieved effortlessly and with little thought, simply dialed in as needed, which is fitting considering Renato Jones itself is more or less the same. An artless hodge podge of Frank Miller habits from Sin City shadowing and disturbing gender politics to Dark Knight Returns’ hamfisted explorations of classism and corruption, Renato Jones thinks it’s on the level of those beloved series when really it’s the Bernie Bro equivalent of Holy Terror, all embarrassing politic with no chill or nuance, an impotent jerk off motion towards the faces of interchangeable big business stereotypes and idle playboys.

Like a latter day Rage Against the Machine album, Renato Jones mistakes buzzword fueled macho posturing for astute political discource. Its titular hero is a cardboard Bruce Wayne cutout, with the twist that he’s not actually an orphaned billionaire son of elites but a street urchin who happens to look like the real and really dead Renato Jones and has been groomed by an Alfred stand-in named Church to infiltrate the 1% who control most of the world’s wealth using that identity. Unlike Batman, Renato Jones absolutely does kill and in exceedingly brutal, gratuitous ways, putting him closer to Sin City-level violence than Miller’s work on Daredevil and Batman.

Renato Jones Kaare Andrews

Jones uses the identity of “The Freelancer” (because, as one villain says, “freelancer is simply a name we use to avoid paying benefits”) and wears a suit and a mask, making him an exceptionally bland and anonymous anti-hero. That Andrews almost certainly intended that identy to be anonymous (get it?) doesn’t really make it any more interesting or remarkable, and that generic “fuck you!” attitude clouds the work to the extent that it never really stands out or commands attention no matter how hard it tries.

Take the first mission we see The Freelancer embark on, where as Renato Jones he infiltrates a giant ship an absurdly rich sadist named Douglas Bradley owns. Bradley’s defining characteristic outside of his homemade snuff film collection is his overuse of the word “dude.” That’s it. Later, The Freelancer’s archnemesis (one of two Trump analogues in this comic, complete with a presidential run centering on the phrase Make America Hate Again) hires a killer named “Wicked Awesome” to pursue The Freelancer. Wicked Awesome’s defining characteristics are that he says “wicked awesome” a lot and that he also likes to say “I’m such a dick.” Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Andrews’ shallow characterization extends beyond the villains of the book and to every single woman character. The women who aren’t immediately killed (which is the vast majority of the women in the comic) are either crazed sexpots, cartoonishly greedy psychopaths or generic damsels in distress with no identifiable traits others than their need to be “saved.” These women’s motivations are limited to either lust or a need for economic stability, they have no other desires whatsoever. Characters of color don’t fare any better, they’re limited to stock villain extras or corpses.

Renato Jones Kaare Andrews

And though Andrews’ style is presented as groundbreaking and novel, it’s just as superficial even beyond its clear debt to Miller. The storytelling in Renato Jones is flat and uninspired, built chiefly around cheap splashes and blocky silhouettes that are meant to look “cool” but lose any spark they might have had the fiftieth time you’re forced to endure them in any given issue. Andrews lacks patience as a storyteller and doesn’t want to put the time into developing characters in a way that makes their decisions carry weight, so he expects you to just be content with the intense style over substance you’re assaulted with at every turn.

There’s a Warren Ellis quote on the cover, though, so it’s clear that Andrews and Image know that there’s a sizable audience out there for readers who just can’t help but love a snarky, violent man dressed in white. But you deserve better. So much better. Comics began life as vehicles for messages aimed directly at the poor and disenfranchised, the entire medium is built around symbolism and visual communication and even in the simplest days of the form it generated worthwhile political commentary. Renato Jones wants to inspire a revolution, it wants to give life to your fantasies of the rich getting their just desserts for all the harm they’ve done to everyone beneath them. But as a work of political art it’s too blunt to cut through anything, too flaccid to be inspiring. It’s just a sloppy, heartless mess that satisfies your most juvenile fantasies and nothing else. Fuck that.

Renato Jones: The One% Season One is available now through Image.


Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands.  You can also flip through his archives at  Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Features, Reviews Tagged With: comics, Image Comics, Kaare Kyle Andrews, Renato Jones

About Nick Hanover

Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with Dylan Garsee on twitter: @Nick_Hanover

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SOCIAL

FacebookInstagramTumblrTwitter

Buy Loser City Apparel

loser city T-shirt

Be a Loser

Sign up for Loser City's mailing list to receive weekly updates about the latest articles, shows, and releases.

TRENDZ

Anatomy of a Page art Austin CBS comedy comics Dark Horse DC DC Comics documentary Fantagraphics Film Fossil Records Games HBO hip-hop horror humor IDW Image Comics Indie indie comics jake muncy manga Marvel Marvel Comics Melissa Benoist Music penny dreadful Pete Toms punk Questionable Comics Review Ryan K Lindsay sci-fi Seattle Showtime Supergirl SXSW Television the CW TV video games Video of the Week ymmv

Top Posts & Pages

  • Below Her Mouth is Yet Another Disappointing Film About Lesbian Experiences
  • Miss Stevens is a Film About Loneliness That Forgets it's About Loneliness
  • Codeine Crazy
  • Visual Domination: Angelina Jolie's Sexual Power in Mr and Mrs. Smith
  • Fluid Exchange: I Roved Out by Rupert Everton
  • Fluid Exchange: Stjepan Sejic's Sunstone
  • All You See: The Fall of Family Guy
  • Bingo Love has Laudable Aims but Its Storytelling Falters
  • Unnatural Transformations: Wolf Moon is a Refreshing New Take on the Werewolf Genre
  • The Scream: Remembering Chester Bennington's Voice and Why It Connected with so Many

Follow Loser City

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
Instagram did not return a 200.

Follow loser_city on the Gram

Loser City is…

Comics, shows, a secret critical network -- we aim to fail big.

Danny Djeljosevic: Co-Founder

Morgan Davis: Co-Founder

Nick Hanover: Glorious Godfrey of LC

David Fairbanks: Creative Writing Editor

Kayleigh Hughes: Film Editor

Julie Muncy: Games Editor

David He: Assisting Consultant*

Contributors: Nate Abernethy, John Bender, AJ Bernardo, CJ Camba, Liam Conlon, Daniel Elkin, David A. French, Rafael Gaitan, Dylan Garsee, Stefanie Gray, Johnson Hagood, Shea Hennum, Zak Kinsella, Austin Lanari, Marissa Louise, Francesca Lyn, Chase Magnett, Justin Martin, Diana Naneva, Claire Napier, Joshua Palmer, James Pound, Mike Prezzato, Lars Russell, David Sackllah, Keith Silva, Nicholas Slayton, Carly Smith, Ray Sonne, Tom Speelman, Mark O. Stack, Dylan Tano, Mason Walker

Art

Why So Angry: Refusing to Forget Stories of Abuse

Poetry: My God, My World

Comic Cinema Club: Sorcerer by Rafael Gaitan and Mike Prezzato

Nonfiction: Progeny in Crisis by Kayleigh Hughes

The Persistence of Synergy: Scenes from the Stock Business Photo Prison Hellscape

More Art

Interviews

Dhani Harrison Plots His Own Path With Solo Debut In///Parallel

Boston Terriers and Desert Vibes: A Conversation with Jay and Sanders Fabares of “The Pale”

Questionable Comics: Becky & Frank and Rachael Stott

More Interviews

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in