Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker #1

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Mike Huddleston

You have to appreciate the role that Joe Casey plays in modern comics.  It's clear that he loves superhero comics, and in his work, he embraces them, with all their peculiarities and nonsense, with such a fervor that he creates stories that aren't so much satire as pure, unadulterated superheroics.  His new book, Butcher Baker, is to the gritty post-heroic 90s of the Watchmen, the Punisher, and Rick Veitch's Brat Pack what his Godland is to Jack Kirby.

Butcher Baker is a retired patriotic superhero (more Comedian than Captain America) who is brought out of retirement (by Dick Cheney and Jay Leno) to help clean up some loose ends.  He mostly spends his days having sex with multiple women, and drives a souped-up gigantic semi painted to look like the American flag.

Despite all appearances, it seems his life is kind of empty.  Or at least, that's what this issue hints at, but most of this comic is spent establishing his unique character.  It's a fun comic, and Huddleston does a great job of showing different eras in Baker's career.  I'm not sure if this is a mini-series or an on-going, but it seems interesting enough to get me to stick around for a while.