Review: Narcos #1

The first season of Narcos,  chronicled the life of Pablo Escobar from the late 1970s, when he and the Medellin Cartel first began manufacturing cocaine, to July 1992, when he escaped La Catedral prison, while also focusing on Escobar’s interactions with other drug lords, DEA agents, and other Cartels. Narcos was not only the one of the first Netflix series to have found a successful formula for a successful biopic; but it was also going to have one of the first comics based on a biopic as well.   In April 2019, IDW Publishing was meant to have published a comic book series , but it was continually delayed from the publisher, but not it seems to be back on track.

Narcos #1 is set in 1991 Colombia, and follows three entities in the Pablo Esboar saga; first is what happens after Pablo Escobar has agreed to do time in his the prison that he built with his own money, called La Catedral.

Ambassador Danielle Noonan, who coordinated the joint US-Colombian efforts against the drug cartels in the country, to include the DEA agent Task force that includes ; Agent Murphy, a DEA agent tasked with bringing down Escobar; Javier Peña, a DEA agent, who is on Murphy’s task force; DEA Agent Raskow, Formerly a part of Joint Task Force Bravo, Honduras, and Grenada; DEA Agent Hirsch, Who has never even been to Miami.

The DEA agent Task force, works closely with Search Bloc (Based on El Bloc Busqeda) an organization that was created by the President Virgilio Barco with the sole objective of apprehending drug lord Pablo Escobar and his associates. Commanded by Colonel Horacio Carillo: ( believed to be inspired by Colonel Hugo Martinez) Members of Search Bloc received training from the Colombian army and were specially selected for being impervious to police corruption from the drug cartels.They were known to collaborate with anti-Escobar vigilante groups such as Los Pepes, which would have included vigilantism within Search Bloc pertaining to suspicious deaths of Escobar’s subordinates.

In 2019,  Gangster Movies made a big return and those who admire “the classic gangster genre,”“ will be able to enjoy Narcos #1 that has the noir energy of  Public Enemy with vivid characters and action and a bit of a some mystery to it.  But Let“s be honest ”” violence is the most fun thing to see.

FINAL VERDICT:  This isn’t really an issue that’s prime for judgment, it really is all setup, and a lot of the material that was covered here has been covered in the series.  What will keep me coming back to check out issue #2, is the promise that it will give further insight to what happened inside the prison.   In 2015 when Narcos originally debut, this would have been a great place for the average American to start, but unfortunately due to the Cartel related events and current political climate that is no longer the case.  I actually would like to see Ryan Ferrier adapt some of the other properties currently available on Netflix such as “Senor De los Cielos, Bloque de búsqueda,  La Reina del Sur, or Surviving Escobar.

SCORE: 2.5 STARS out of 5.

Narcos #1 will have three different covers;Cover A Regular Vic Malhotra Cover;Cover B Incentive Nelson Daniel Variant Cover; Cover C Incentive Vic Malhotra Variant Cover

(W) Ryan Ferrier
(A) Vic Malhotra
(C) Cris Peter
(L) Neil Uyetake
Published by IDW

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