Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Caspar Wijngaard
Published by Image Comics
I have to say that I haven’t read too many comic books from either of these creators.
I have read their major works (The Wicked and the Divine and Home Sick Pilots), but haven’t read much beyond.
They both are solid creators but they both never really appealed to me.
With that, I decided to check out their newest work that they collaborated on. It sounded interesting enough.
There is a lot to unpack after reading this first volume. I did enjoy a lot of the book and the concepts they are trying to introduce here.
This is definitely a deconstruction of superhero comics.
Let me get that out of the way right away. The concept of the book is pretty simple yet it does go deeper than what is initially presented on the surface. It shows what happens when we take a look at what it means to be super-powered.
The high concept is that there are six people who have superpowers in the world. If they ever come into contact with each other, it would mean doomsday.
This concept carries the stories through the chapters in this volume. We get to meet the six super-powered individuals. The way that being called “super-powered” in this book is described is basically having the power level of a nuclear weapon. All six of the characters have that but there is definitely more to them than that. They all are unique and well written.
Writer Kieron Gillen gives all of them terrific personalities and their characters are all three dimensional. But there are other forces beyond these six individuals that either want to keep them away from each other, or draw them closer.
Valentina for instance, is an angel that wants to keep the six apart for sure. Valentina knows the consequences of it all. We also have Etienne who says that the world needs to be taken over or that there needs to be a better balance.
Which point of view is right? A lot of what follows in this comic explores that very question. It is nice to have a comic that explores those questions in a philosophical way. The questions that are raised are explored in incredibly interesting ways and in completely unexpected ways. Gillen really does like to push his ideas out in his work. His work is very different and it is very appreciated that he stretches himself.
All six of the super-powered individuals can communicate telepathically. They can keep each other in check so there are no sudden outbursts or anything that could threaten the world. They are in constant communication. But as the story progresses, we start to see a real breakdown in that communication. It even start to become adversarial. And that is not good at all for the world at large.
The US government gets involved. They decide, through various channels, that one of the six named Heavy is a threat to the world at large. They decide to attack him. He survives their attack and he vows vengeance against them.
That is when Etienne steps in and decides to kill the president. This is in hopes of making things balance out. But of course, this is a catalyst of many things to come in the book. It sets in motion many things that are deadly to the six and to the world at large in general.
The six are the focus of the book. Together, in this unique circumstance of being apart like this, they must work together as a super team, but in a brand new way.
Can they do it? Or will they fail at this and will the world end?
The answers come fast and furious in often surprising ways. There are a lot of twists and turns in the book and all of them are earned. It is interesting throughout.
The story is very well done. I would be interested to see where the creators take the book beyond this volume. It does have a lot of questions that weren’t answered but probably will be in upcoming volumes. The art is definitely Caspar Wijngaard‘s best work. The storytelling is strong and it is very intriguing.
Overall, this is a good book. I will be reading the rest to see where it goes from here.
RATING: B+
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