When I first heard about Heart, by Blair Butler and Kevin Mellon, I thought for sure it would be another Rocky Balboa story. Follow a nobody who scratches his way to the top of M.M.A. But instead, we get something very, very different. We get introduced to Oren Redmond. Your average 'everyman' from Kansas City. He works at a dead-end job he hates. He spends his days standing by the water cooler, staring out the window. He's waiting for his life to begin. Waiting for something worth living for. Until one night, when he watches his brother win an amateur M.M.A fight. He decides to join the gym his brother trains at, and before too long he enters the cage himself and fights. And wins. By issue number two, Oren is unstoppable. With a perfect amateur record, Oren turns pro and picks up his ring name, 'rooster', after landing himself in the local paper with picture of him kicking his opponent in the face. "You look like a chicken in a cockfight!" said a fellow fighter. "And that was that... The name just stuck." He soon quits his job. "Walking out [that] door,” says Oren, “I knew I'd never go back to being a sheep. In that moment I had a tremendous feeling of conviction. I was meant for greatness. I was meant to SMASH HEADS." Issue number three starts off with Oren moving back home with his Mother, deciding to train full-time. Except he hits a 'snag' with his third pro fight, getting thrown around the cage for the first round. He was able to get lucky with a 'Hail Mary' triangle and get the win. “[I] came out of it looking like a stud to the crowd… And like a moron to my corner.” And another snag in his sixth fight, with his first loss to an old pro who'd just been booted from his X.C.L. contract. Moving down to welterweight, Oren seems to have his career back on track with another win and even a match for a local belt. "I almost felt sorry for him.” says Oren, as he stand across the cage, “It was my time..." *KRAK* "...Until it wasn't." Oren goes down for the count, suffering his second loss. And with this issue, the final part of this series, number four begins Oren's fall from grace. Very quickly, it's established he can barely even win an 'easy' fight. "No one dreams of becoming a stepping stone... But that's what I turned into." The story ends with Oren fighting his last match. He loses to a twenty-two year old with a perfect record. "He doesn't know what it's like to lose yet. And right away, I know I won't be the one who shows him." He retires and gets a delivery gig for an advertising firm downtown. He meets his future wife delivering her a package. They move in together and are having a baby. "You feel that?" asks Kelly, Oren's wife, placing his hand her pregnant belly, "Yeah. She kicks like me." In the closing pages, Oren delivers a package by were he used to work at. And he realizes how far he's come. He isn't wasting his life away behind a computer, looking to the clock... Waiting for his life to begin. He has his stories to tell his daughter. "I stepped into the cage... And there's some honor in that."