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Primos #1-4
Primos (Primos, 1)
Centuries ago, two Mayan brothers constructed a spacecraft that sent them hurtling into outer space. Returned to Earth only to find their culture and civilization destroyed, one of the brothers vows revenge and seeks to decimate the planet with intergalactic technology gathered on his travels. To prevent this, his sibling creates a contingency plan that activates the world’s protectors – descendants of their own family. Now, the fate of the planet lies in the hands of three cousins scattered throughout Central and North America who have never even met.
112 pages, Paperback
Published July 26, 2022
19 people want to read
About the author
Al Madrigal
12 books3 followersAlessandro Liborio "Al" Madrigal is an American comedian, writer, actor and producer.
Outside of the standup world, he is known for his co-starring roles in the film Night School, Showtime's dark comedy I'm Dying Up Here, NBC's About A Boy, as well as CBS sitcoms Gary Unmarried and Welcome to The Captain and being the writer of the comic "Primos".
Outside of the standup world, he is known for his co-starring roles in the film Night School, Showtime's dark comedy I'm Dying Up Here, NBC's About A Boy, as well as CBS sitcoms Gary Unmarried and Welcome to The Captain and being the writer of the comic "Primos".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2022
Jesus this was a rough read. Usually, I can fly through these AWA books in under an hour or two, but this was so miserable I had to keep spacing it out. That “How do you do fellow kids” meme is literally just this whole comic book.
Centuries ago, two Mayan brothers launched themselves into space, only to return in the present day to find their culture destroyed. One brother wants to destroy the world for what it has done, so the other brother activates a contingency plan: Give superpowers to his descendants.
How does he do this? Fuck if I know man, my brain started leaking out of my eyes and ears by the end of the second issue. But now these 3 descendants, who are all primos (or cousins), must use their superpowers to save the world from...um...their ancestor doing something?
Al Madrigal, Brian Reber, and Carlo Barberi team up for the worst AWA book by far. The stakes throughout this thing are basically nonexistent, and the fact that all of the bad guys who are trying to end the world feel like a complete afterthought doesn’t help at all. Couldn’t even tell you what their plan was. It’s a shame too that all the bad guys throughout this look identical, which isn’t shocking since the art fucking sucks, but was disappointing to see while I was reading.
The only interesting part of this whole book is when Madrigal brings in elements of Mayan history and culture, but then he can’t even be bothered to call real historical artifacts or weapons by their actual names and just ends up treating them like background noise. It’s genuinely so fucking frustrating.
And as mentioned before, this whole book reads like some out-of-touch 40+ year old trying to write young and ~relatable~ characters, and it’s just embarrassing. I’m not exactly a teen anymore, but I do know this isn’t how high school kids talk nowadays (or how anyone does for that matter).
Our main character is supposed to be like 16-17 years old based on the things he talks about doing, but everything he says sounds like something an emotionally stunted 13-year-old would say. Just look at these terrible lines that are said during this reading:
“This is some Call of Duty shit.”
“I know this is nuts—I mean, five hours ago, I was talking to girls and smoking weed...”
“After some serious MMA-type shit...”
“No I said ‘left for dead’ as in weak AF...”
“MAGA was about to clash with Maya.”
MAGA clashes with Maya is the line that broke me. I fell onto the floor of my library and died from cringe right then and there. The librarian had to use an AED to bring me back. Oh yeah and these quotes? Only from the first two issues, as I didn’t even bother to include all of the horrible lines from the last two.
The main character also narrates the whole book like he’s having a casual conversation with the reader because Madrigal clearly thinks it’s cool, but it’s so fucking annoying. He then tries to cover all these boring as fuck exposition dumps with this “cool” dialogue to make the book more fun, but it just makes it even more grating to read.
Last thing, but who the fuck is this book even aimed at? I assume teens, but I doubt any real teenagers have read this book as of yet. And if they have, I would be shocked if they unironically liked this. I mean different strokes for different folks, but this was so rough. I also saw someone point out that the cover of most issues says this was for Teen readers, but cover B of issue 1 says it’s for Mature readers. So did something happen to this book during development where ratings changed? Probably since it’s a total mess, but who actually knows?
I have no idea how the fuck this even got approved, but this is a rare miss from AWA on pretty much every level. The main character sucks, there are no stakes throughout the whole book, the writing and art are both beyond banal, and there’s way too much superficial social commentary with nothing to say constantly distracting the reader from the already shitty story at hand. This book truly fucking sucks on every level.
K’a’ak’ate Primos! I will not miss you.
Centuries ago, two Mayan brothers launched themselves into space, only to return in the present day to find their culture destroyed. One brother wants to destroy the world for what it has done, so the other brother activates a contingency plan: Give superpowers to his descendants.
How does he do this? Fuck if I know man, my brain started leaking out of my eyes and ears by the end of the second issue. But now these 3 descendants, who are all primos (or cousins), must use their superpowers to save the world from...um...their ancestor doing something?
Al Madrigal, Brian Reber, and Carlo Barberi team up for the worst AWA book by far. The stakes throughout this thing are basically nonexistent, and the fact that all of the bad guys who are trying to end the world feel like a complete afterthought doesn’t help at all. Couldn’t even tell you what their plan was. It’s a shame too that all the bad guys throughout this look identical, which isn’t shocking since the art fucking sucks, but was disappointing to see while I was reading.
The only interesting part of this whole book is when Madrigal brings in elements of Mayan history and culture, but then he can’t even be bothered to call real historical artifacts or weapons by their actual names and just ends up treating them like background noise. It’s genuinely so fucking frustrating.
And as mentioned before, this whole book reads like some out-of-touch 40+ year old trying to write young and ~relatable~ characters, and it’s just embarrassing. I’m not exactly a teen anymore, but I do know this isn’t how high school kids talk nowadays (or how anyone does for that matter).
Our main character is supposed to be like 16-17 years old based on the things he talks about doing, but everything he says sounds like something an emotionally stunted 13-year-old would say. Just look at these terrible lines that are said during this reading:
“This is some Call of Duty shit.”
“I know this is nuts—I mean, five hours ago, I was talking to girls and smoking weed...”
“After some serious MMA-type shit...”
“No I said ‘left for dead’ as in weak AF...”
“MAGA was about to clash with Maya.”
MAGA clashes with Maya is the line that broke me. I fell onto the floor of my library and died from cringe right then and there. The librarian had to use an AED to bring me back. Oh yeah and these quotes? Only from the first two issues, as I didn’t even bother to include all of the horrible lines from the last two.
The main character also narrates the whole book like he’s having a casual conversation with the reader because Madrigal clearly thinks it’s cool, but it’s so fucking annoying. He then tries to cover all these boring as fuck exposition dumps with this “cool” dialogue to make the book more fun, but it just makes it even more grating to read.
Last thing, but who the fuck is this book even aimed at? I assume teens, but I doubt any real teenagers have read this book as of yet. And if they have, I would be shocked if they unironically liked this. I mean different strokes for different folks, but this was so rough. I also saw someone point out that the cover of most issues says this was for Teen readers, but cover B of issue 1 says it’s for Mature readers. So did something happen to this book during development where ratings changed? Probably since it’s a total mess, but who actually knows?
I have no idea how the fuck this even got approved, but this is a rare miss from AWA on pretty much every level. The main character sucks, there are no stakes throughout the whole book, the writing and art are both beyond banal, and there’s way too much superficial social commentary with nothing to say constantly distracting the reader from the already shitty story at hand. This book truly fucking sucks on every level.
K’a’ak’ate Primos! I will not miss you.
July 8, 2022
Lots of credit for going beyond the usual comic book/super hero tropes. Madrigal effectively mashes up teen super heroes + Mexican culture + ancient astronaut theories. A great read no, but entertaining I'd say yes.
June 18, 2025
Remember when politics was supposed to not be present in comics? This author didn't get the memo. One of the main characters - the hot one - is driving undocumented mexicans onto 'land that was theirs in the first place'. I don't think these creators understand how conquest works. You have to WIN the war to keep that land, buddy.
Ricky Pascal is a member of a line of Mayans tasked with enlightening the world alongside counterparts from other planets. Many centuries ago, two brothers were given this task, but a miscalculation saw them return to Earth in present day, when barely any Mayans are left. Janaan is still focused on enlightenment, but Kan want revenge for his people. They part on bad terms. Ricky must now join this war on Janaab's side to battle his brother Kan, while protecting his own family from harm.
Ricky Pascal is a member of a line of Mayans tasked with enlightening the world alongside counterparts from other planets. Many centuries ago, two brothers were given this task, but a miscalculation saw them return to Earth in present day, when barely any Mayans are left. Janaan is still focused on enlightenment, but Kan want revenge for his people. They part on bad terms. Ricky must now join this war on Janaab's side to battle his brother Kan, while protecting his own family from harm.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews