Gail Simone’s The Ring: The Man Who Beat the Man #4 — Inside the Ring’s Most Fiery Match Yet

Gail Simone and Elisa Romboli bring the noise to The Ring’s latest arc. With Liam the Bulldog’s media circus clashing against Ivan the Bear’s silent menace, this is the moment the series’ stakes have been building toward. Trust me, the art sells every punch.

There’s a specific kind of energy that comes from a series that knows exactly what it is, and The Ring: The Man Who Beat the Man is that series. Produced in close cooperation with the legendary magazine The Ring—the historic Bible of boxing—this eight-issue run from Dark Horse Comics doesn’t just wear the genre’s crown; it polishes it. We’re on issue four, right in the thick of a narrative that has been carefully balancing the loud, flashy world of modern sports entertainment with the quiet, brutal reality of the sport itself.

The setup here is deliciously simple but emotionally complex. On one side of the ring, we have Liam the Bulldog, a fighter whose persona is as loud as his jabs. He’s thriving in the over-the-top media circus that surrounds his next bout, treating the buildup like a personal festival. Opposing him is Ivan the Bear, a man who couldn’t care less about the posturing, the interviews, or the spectacle. Ivan is only there to deal damage. Watching from the shadows, preparing for his own comeback and a clash with the winner, is Ramon the Lion. It’s a triangular tension that turns every punch thrown in the ring into a message for someone else.

Gail Simone (Uncanny X-Men, Birds of Prey) writes this with the precision of someone who understands that boxing is chess at two hundred pounds. But the real magic here is visual. Elisa Romboli (You Never Heard of Me), working alongside colorist and letterer Iolanda Zanfardino (A Thing Called Truth), brings a kinetic, breathing quality to the panels. You can feel the impact, hear the crowd, and sense the exhaustion. The cover by Oliver Barrett captures that perfect moment of calm before the storm, hinting at the raw power that’s about to be unleashed.

This is the issue where the narrative calculations finally pay off. It’s not just about who wins a fight; it’s about how the different styles of these three men—Liam’s flair, Ivan’s brutality, Ramon’s patience—collide. If you’ve been following the series, this is the crescendo. If you’re just picking it up, you’re getting a masterclass in sports drama that requires zero prior knowledge of boxing rules to feel every gut punch.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the companion energy of this arc. The way Simone sets up Ramon the Lion as the wildcard makes the entire series feel like a ticking clock. Keep an eye on the back issues as well; the groundwork laid in the first three issues makes this fourth drop feel like a reward for sticking around. These move fast, just so you know, but the story is worth every bit of the hunt.