The creator of Invincible and The Walking Dead imagined a hard-drinking, sex-obsessed pope with superpowers who teams up with Jesus to battle demons in what may be the most outrageous comic of his career. Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s Battle Pope is not for the faint of heart.

There’s a new pope in town. Just yesterday, on the second day of the conclave held in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals elected Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Leo XIV, as the new supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church. But over the last few days, I’ve been more interested in the fictional portrayals of the Pope—especially the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with his real-world holiness. That’s when I remembered a comic written two decades ago by none other than Robert Kirkman—yes, the same guy behind The Walking Dead and Invincible—who envisioned the Pope as… a full-on superhero.

Battle Pope tells the story of Oswald Leopold II, leader of the Church, but also a foul-mouthed womanizer who solves problems with brute force. Trained in martial arts as a kid by Bruce Lee himself, he gets a divine mission from God to rescue Saint Michael the Archangel, who’s been kidnapped by Lucifer and the hellish armies now roaming Earth. To do that, the Pope is granted superhuman strength and a sidekick: a version of Jesus Christ who’s clumsy, naïve, fashion-impaired, and spends most of his time scarfing down hot dogs and playing video games.

In Battle Pope, the Earth has faced a demonic invasion, and it is up to the Pope and Jesus to keep the hellish creatures at bay

The plot unfolds in a post-apocalyptic world where God, seemingly fed up with humanity, opened the gates of Hell, unleashing hordes of demons. Eventually, a peace treaty closed the gates again and placed a guardian in charge, but the demons who’d already made it to Earth stayed, and things got weird. Some tried to adapt to society, while others, of course, had more sinister plans involving celestial domination. Lucifer, no surprise, is the first major villain in this mess.

“Battle Pope is about a hard-drinking, hard-living pope in a future where God came down to call his children to heaven, and the pontiff was left behind with the rest of the sinners. Shortly after God abandoned the sinners on Earth, Hell broke out, and Hell’s legions of demons took over. After a great war, there was a treaty between humans and demons that allowed them to coexist, but life among demons isn’t easy. Seeing everything that humans were facing, God gave the Pope superpowers and tasked him with protecting the remaining humans on Earth by keeping them safe. He sent his only son, Jesus Christ, as his companion.” — Battle Pope synopsis (via Robert Kirkman)

Without diving too deep and ruining the ride for anyone curious enough to check it out, let’s just say Battle Pope is the ultimate profane action comedy for adults. Think Deadpool, but the Pope and Jesus are roommates—much to the Pope’s annoyance, since he mostly wants to break in his new bed with a random woman. Together, they travel the world kicking demon ass in increasingly absurd and grotesque ways. There are even weirdos like the “zombie twins,” who are nothing like the walkers from The Walking Dead.

This is not a comic you casually recommend to your Catholic grandmother. It’s crude, it’s violent, it’s got nudity, and its portrayal of the Pope (and Jesus) is completely over-the-top. But if you’re into anarchic, no-filter storytelling in the vein of Lobo or Deadpool, you’ll find it both hilarious and surprisingly creative. The action is wild, the humor is unfiltered, and Tony Moore’s art delivers with bold, kinetic panels that jump off the page. If you give it a read, let me know what you think.

Battle Pope ran for 14 issues and first launched in 2000, three years before Invincible and The Walking Dead, making it Robert Kirkman’s comic book debut. It even got an animated web series with eight short episodes, though—annoyingly—I’ve only managed to find one online so far.

Source: 3djuegos