UNDERGROUND

Testosterone soaks the pages of this ultraviolent urban martial arts comic.

In pursuit of the sneering giant who challenged him outside the gym one day and smashed his Olympic dreams along with his ribs, kickboxer Karim Yun dives into the corrupt and sordid world of no-rules cage fighting to pulp and be pulped by invariably larger opponents—notably proud boxer Leon Espinosa, who becomes an ally and second protagonist partway through after deciding that he doesn’t like being ordered to deliberately throw fights. Spatters of blood, sound effects (“WHAM,” “BOOM,” “URGH!”), and blurred figures capture the impact of heavy blows to heads and bodies during bouts; meanwhile the mix of vocal and inner dialogue delivers technical commentary on strikes and strategy (“A 540 hook kick knockout?!” “A one-shot kill liver blow!”) that is supplemented by detailed views, sometimes even X-rays, of cracked bones and mangled joints and organs. Aside from Maya Kang, a nurse who attaches herself to Karim to doctor him between fights and be rescued from assaults by leering louts, the only women here are lingerie-clad and shown fawning over fight promoters, but De Bard provides views aplenty of strutting, tattooed, massively chiseled males to gawk at. Names cue some ethnic diversity in the cast, as do differences in skin tone and hair texture in the monochrome art.

Gore-splattered lessons in anatomy as well as bringing the pain.