“The second best superhero book in the universe” is a pretty bold statement to make. However, it’s that tongue in cheek comment encapsulates this book, from Aspen and Big Dog Ink, perfectly.
As you’d expect for a culminating issue, there is a lot going on both in the battle with U.N.I.C.O.R.N, the issue of time displacements, people missing from their own timeline, purrfection and quite a big reveal at the end. It would be easy, as a reviewer, to look at the chaos inside, throw hands up in the air and go look for something a little more pedestrian. That would be the wrong thing to do as you would miss the fun and games. Even coming late to this particular party it plain to see some of the archetypes in play with Paradox being the mysterious benefactor or is that manipulator?
Written by Tom Hutchison, the dialogue is a good mix of the different types of hero on show, from the serious to the scatty and with a number of stops along the way. Story wise, the book moves along at a fair pace all the way up to the end.
Art is by Fico Ossio who delivers a book with a unique style. “Unique style” can be read a number of different ways. Unique as in “oh my god what am I looking at?” to unique “oh my god I have never seen anything so cool”. In truth, it’s somewhere in middle, with some great looking panels, fractured with an extended curve style that would make Rick Leonardi’s works look like its been drawn with a ruler. That said, it works!
The book reads like a Legion of Superheroes boo from the middle of the Bronze Age. The characters and their universe are as real to them as ours is to us. That is what makes the book sound cheesy in places and allows Hutchison to get away with it.
Quick question though, if this is the second best superhero book in the universe, what is the best one?
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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