By: Mark A. Smith (writer), Armand Villavert (art), Carlos Carrasco (colors), Fonografiks (letters) & D.J. Kirkbridge (editor)
The Story: Imagine a Hogwarts-like school where the young super-villains of tomorrow can learn their craft…
What’s Good: This is a charming little comic where you really feel like you’re hanging out for the day at a middle school for baby villains. If just feels authentic as in, “Yup, that’s probably how they’d act.” Smith writes breezy dialog for these little monsters and shows them as they go through their days at school. Even though the whole thing is quite tongue-in-cheek, it has lots of normal stuff you’d associate with a story about 12 year olds. There are a few kids who are a little too self-important because they haven’t learned humility yet, girls who daydream about the cute boy in class and playground fisticuffs settled with junior-sized super-powers. It is also a lot of fun seeing the vast assortment of kids in this class and wondering what their powers are.
There is also a lot of humor that starts on the first page where we see a listing of courses for the hellions. Some are stuff you’d expect: Explosives 101, Subterranean Lairs and Intergalactic Conquests. Some are kinda funny: Home Economics, Public Speaking and P.E. – Dodgeball. Then the humor continues as we see how the school was started with the theft of THE world’s ubervillain’s “Playbook”. This uber-villain is kinda an Iron-Man like character and when the theft goes down, he is trying to entertain guests by serving cranberry muffins and tea (on a silver platter) while wearing a pink, frilly apron. The whole issue is kinda a knee slapper.
And, the art is quite special. Villavert has a very economical and clean style. There is absolutely no embellishing of characters. I’m sometimes surprised at how much I can enjoy this style when I’m also a huge fan of guys like Greg Capullo who draw insane detail. I think the key is not to get stuck in the middle. Villavert shows that a lot of times, the first line is the strongest line and all of his characters have a lot of energy and that’s the most important thing. Reminds me of Oeming a little bit (and that’s a compliment). The comic also has a jaunty and bright color (and mostly flat) palate, which I really liked given the subject matter.
What’s Not So Good: There isn’t a lot of story yet. Now, I enjoyed dropping in to see what these kids are up to, but after the first issue you don’t really know who is the central character or what the main conflict will be. In some ways, that isn’t too surprising. As I said above, the whole thing feels more like you just hung out at the local middle school for the day and observed the kids. Maybe it feels so authentic and natural because a normal day at a real-world middle school doesn’t have any overarching plot?
Actually, I’m sure there is a bigger story here somewhere, but it just isn’t obvious what it’ll be after the first issue.
Conclusion: A lot of warmth and soul in this first issue about a school for villainous pre-teens. Really clean and effective art too; I wish more colorists would focus on flat colors and selecting colors that make sense for the story instead of emphasizing the gleam off of someone’s pecs. The only thing holding this back from a higher score is a little uncertainty about what the story is about.
Grade: B+
-Dean Stell
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Filed under: Image Comics Tagged: | Armand Villavert, Carlos Carrasco, D.J. Kirkbridge, Dean Stell, Fonografiks, Gladstone's School for World Conquerors, Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #1, GLADSTONES SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS #1 review, Image, Mark A. Smith, review
