Battle Pope is the entertaining series by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore which revolves around a crazed cigar smoking and gun totting Pope who takes no for an answer... his name is Oswald Leopold the second. Joining Pope Oswald in this alternate universe is a mentally challenged Jesus Chris who acts as his sidekick and needless to say, the situations that this unholy duo get involved in is sometimes quite shocking.

If your anywhere religious or a practicing Catholic than you might want to get your read elsewhere because this book is as sacrilegious as they come, especially as this pope is quite the asshole not to mention his numerous vices from drinking to womanising. Even the first few pages has the pope knocking people out, having sex with a woman and flipping god the bird. That's just on four pages! However comedy and outrageousness are the keys to Battle Pope, not to mention lots of action. His nemesis is of course Lucifer which requires Oswald to rescue St. Michael that leads our anti-hero to hell and back, quite literally.

The highlight of Battle Pope Volume 1 is the dialogue and seeing this crazed old pope do exactly the opposite of what he should be doing is f**king hilarious. The mentally challenged Jesus is quite creepy to watch as well which reminds me of the excellent Preacher series by Garth Ennis. The only downside to Battle Pope Volume 1 is that it does become a little repetitive and eventually the shock factor does wear thin. Even so, it's one of the most original reads in a long time.

To compliment the outrageous story, Battle Pope Volume 1 features some amazing art by Tony Moore which really brings the story to life and Moore has a real touch for creating over the top action scenes. Obviously Moore did have fun drawing the female characters in the book and his interpretation of the foul-mouth battle hardened pope is pure ingenious not to mention his hideous demons from hell. It should also be noted that the colouring of this story is perfect, thanks to Val Staples who makes everything look clean in this dirty dirty world.

In the end, if you're looking something left out of centre and not your mainstream Spider-man or Batman cr*p, than I would suggest you check out volume 1 of Battle Pope, Genesis. It's an easy read without any of the complexities of the more serious books. Provided Catholicism hasn't put a Jihad (e.g. Holy War) against Kirkman,  I'm looking forward to where the adventures of Pope Oswald Leopold II and Jesus end up.