By: Mark Millar (writer/creator), Leinil Yu (penciler/creator), Gerry Alanguilan, Jason Paz & Jeff Huet (inkers), Sunny Gho & Javier Tartaglia (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Cory Levine (editor)
The Story: Now that Simon Pooni has been transformed into Superior and kinda gotten a hold of his powers, it’s time for him to start getting into some heroic action.
What’s Good: This comic really has a big heart and I think it accurately depicts what would happen if a ~11 year old paraplegic boy suddenly did get super powers: He wouldn’t immediately just start proclaiming himself as Superior, puff out his chest and save the day while stopping to pose for the cameras. He’d probably fix things and then hide from the resultant attention out of fear that he’d possibly done something wrong or that his parents would find out. So, as we go though this issue, which is really an exploration of Simon’s coming to grips with his ability to save lives, it was a neat choice by Millar to not have it readily apparent how the space station was saved except for some blurry images on camera phones and the random eyewitness report. I really enjoyed this approach much more than if Simon had posed at the scene of his heroic act and announced himself because it emphasizes that this is really a little boy in a superhero’s body.
Of course, this cannot simply be a comic about a little boy becoming a superhero… There must be some conflict and drama! For that we return to the mysterious Space Monkey who granted Simon’s wish to become Superior in the first place. I don’t want to give away the very cool twist on the final page, but it looks like Simon might have gotten himself into a bigger situation than he originally bargained for. Can’t wait to see how that shakes out.
The art in this issue is pretty strong. One of the things I like about Yu’s pencils is that he draws Superior as a guy wearing a tight uniform as opposed to drawing a nude man who happens to get colored red later. Superior still has bulgy muscles that show off anatomy, but he also has fabric bunching in all the right places. Nice to see a little more realism in that regard that we usually do. Yu also has a couple of scenes that allow him to just go crazy drawing architecture, space stations, submarines, etc. Some of this looks like it might have been sampled from photos, but I don’t really care. It is just nice to see an artist show commitment to excellent art extending beyond the main characters in the scene (although sometimes the “main character” is a submarine). I’m unsure what Yu’s background is, but this is always something you see from artists who were trained as professional illustrators and it is sometimes missing in comics.
What’s Not So Good: No complaints on the story, but I do have a couple of things to pick on with the art that are probably more personal preference than anything else. For one thing, there is a bit of cheesecake in this issue that seems out of place. Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I do love and appreciate cheesecake in comics, but I question why we need to see heaving bosoms in a comic that is about a young boy gaining superpowers. All these large shiny (and well drawn) breasts just didn’t serve the story.
I’m also not a huge fan of some of the coloring style we get in this book. I speak specifically of the style where the shading on characters faces looks like a topographical map in that each shade has a clearly demarcated border between it and the next darker/lighter shade. The back matter in this issue shows the pencil/ink/color process for some of the pages and these contour lines aren’t added by the penciler or inker, so I guess the colorist added them. What’s odd about that is that I’ve loved a lot of Gho’s colors in the past when he hasn’t used this style, so I wonder if he was instructed to color this way or not. Odd….
Conclusion: Minor art quibbles aside, this is a very solid comic about a young boy getting superpowers. It also looks like it is just starting to get rocking and I’m looking forward to the next issue.
Grade: B
-Dean Stell