Book Review: R.I.P.D. by Peter Lenkov

Once again, this was a graphic novel I had never heard of until the movie came out - same as my experience with Hellboy and Men in Black.  In the case of R.I.P.D., I recognized the flavor of the material and suspected it was based on a comic, and a quick search confirmed that.  The trailer for the film looked interesting and amusing (the scene of James Hong using a banana as a gun made me smile, and I typically like Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds), but then it got really bad reviews from critics.  Reviews similar to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and I lost interest in seeing it.  But, I was interested in its origins as a comic, so I hunted around for it.  It was very difficult to find in hard copy, and after a while I gave up - it wasn't available anywhere.  I recently came across it as a Kindle offering and checked it out.

So, what did I think of it after spending some time hunting for it several years ago?  Well, on the surface, it is a very similar story to the one told in the movie Men in Black.  An older agent who will be retiring soon starts training a new agent to protect the Earth.  Whereas the "Men in Black" are human agents who operate above the law using alien technology to protect Earth from bad aliens, the Rest In Peace Department are law enforcement men who have died and work for Heaven, protecting Earth from demons from hell and their human recruits - apparently they serve for 100 years and then can move on.  Heaven, and the R.I.P.D. is represented in a fashion similar to that of the Albert Brook's film Defending Your Life.  Essentially, it is a lot like Earth - there are offices, people stand in lines, etc.

I found this story to be readable, but rather ordinary and seemingly mediocre after seeing the films for Hellboy and Men in Black.  (IMO the Hellboy film was more entertaining than the graphic novel, and definitely contained much more humor - can't speak to Men in Black, since I haven't read the comic material, and I can't speak to the R.I.P.D. film because I haven't seen it yet.)

It was interesting that Satan makes an appearance in the story, but even that was relatively uneventful.  And, no, the Head Honcho of Heaven does NOT put in appearance (this is pretty consistent with most works that involve Hell and Satan - in fact, deceased humans appear to be the only population in heaven; I don't recall any Angels).  Overall, I didn't find this story to be very engaging, and while there were a few original ideas, ultimately it wasn't enough to keep this story from being underwhelming for me.  Perhaps I've seen and read too much  that was similar to this story?

Despite all of this, reading this book has at least given me a desire to see the film, as bad as it may be.  It looks like they added a new wrinkle to the story in the film - the men who work for the R.I.P.D. do not exist in their own bodies.  Jeff Bridges appears as a blond bombshell, and Ryan Reynolds appears as the elderly James Hong - seems like a recipe for humor to me, which I felt was rather absent from the graphic novel.  Perhaps the film will be similar to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman - mostly awful with a few redeeming and entertaining elements?  I have the R.I.P.D. film set up to record, so hopefully I'll be finding out at some point soon.