So you’ve read Kick Ass, saw the movie, then you got Nemesis and rediscovered a love of the Ultimate Captain America. You found 1985 on the bargain rack at you comic shop and then you reread Civil War. You already had Old Man Logan and decided that Kick Ass 2 just wasn’t coming soon enough. You may not have realized it, but you have read some of the best selling comics of the last ten years, and they have all been written by a wiley Scot named Mark Millar.
But Superior might be Mark Millars best story yet.
Seriously.
Superior is the tale of a young boy who is losing the use of his limbs and finds respite in comics and movies, especially in a Superman-esque character named Superior. The boy (who is named Simon Pooni after a Millar fan who won a contest) and his friend Chris share a unique bond over their apparent superhero worship and we learn that Simon is now almost paralyzed and is fighting his body everyday to do simple tasks. In the process of all this, Simon is taken far beyond the galaxy (by a space-travelling monkey of all things) and given the opportunity to become his hero in the flesh and Simon awakes to find he’s become Superior in the real world.
In classic Millar fashion, the dialogue is cheeky and a bit humourous as he has a knack for writing his character as people in the “real” world and not necessarily in the “comic” world. The conversation between Simon and Chris about the evolution of Golden-Age heroes in the modern age, probably mirrors that of most comic fans on most Wednesday afternoons. You would be hard-pressed to find that kind of frank dialogue in most mainstream books.
That is to say nothing of the art by Leinil Yu, which is phenomenal. Yu has worked with Millar before and his strong pencils take a out-of-this world story and make it seem very believable. His use of shadow and hatching make the characters features stand out against the incredibly detailed backgrounds. The scene where the evil Annihilator crashes through a building was jaw-droppingly penciled and those panels alone could easily be selling point for the title.
Superior is not just another tale of a kid granted super powers or even a Joe the Barbarian rip-off. The depth that Millar is able to create for his characters is seldom seen in most books these days. While Nemesis focused on bullets and bodycount early in the series, Superior goes right into the personal stuff in issue 1 with a healthy dose of action to get you warmed up.
The appeal of Millar titles is that they are different. They do not mirror anything on the shelf next to them. Millar takes great care to make his characters seem like they are in the real world and it makes you almost forget that youre reading a comic and not actually there. Much like Dave Lizewski in Kick Ass, Simon Pooni is a tragic figure that find himself in a crazy situation, but in Milalr fashion the characters act very real and have genuine dialogue.
So when you go to the shop on Wednesday, skip an X-book, put down a ridiculously redundant Bat title and pick up Superior. Whether you like hero books, indie titles or have never read a comic, Superior is accessible, enjoyable and makes you think that anything really can happen.
Superior-FTW.
More stuff...
www.jasonmatthewsoncomics.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/the1jaymatthews