Review: ‘Project Superpowers’
When [[[Superman]]] whet readers’ appetite for costumed champions, comic book publishers responded and for the next decade, hundreds of characters arrived. A handful survived through the changes in publishing and most of the others were consigned to the second hand shops and the vault of memory. As a result, many fell into public domain, allowing anyone to dust them off and bring them back into print.
As a result, the notion that Alex Ross was going to spruce up dozens of heroes and sidekicks for his pal Nick Barrucci is certainly an exciting one. Ross partnered once more with writer Jim Krueger to figure out what to do with them all. The resulting series, Project Superpowers, debuted amidst much fanfare last year and the first storyline was collected in December by Dynamite Entertainment in hardcover.
What do you do with an army of heroes whose powers and abilities are currently familiar to generations of readers? You could go in several directions and the creators chose a tried and true concept: the heroes of World War II vanished, the world changed for the worse, and now they’re back and realize how needed they are.
The Fighting Yank is led by his guiding spirit to capture his allies in a magical urn otherwise things in the years following World War II would get darker. Suddenly, the heroes and their sidekicks are taken without permission and trapped. In the intervening years, America becomes a despotic country, casting an ominous shadow over the rest of the world. An aging Fighting Yank is enticed by the Spirit of America, a disembodied American Flag, to find the urn and release its contents. This puts him in direct conflict with Dynamic Man, who, with his family, seem to be ruling America.
When the heroes are released, they are scattered around a world they do not recognize and their powers are altered. The remaining story shows what happens next.
The story moves along briskly but that’s the problem. At no time do the creators properly introduce us to the dozen-plus heroes, establishing who they are and what they can do before telling us their old powers are changed. Nor are we really given an understanding of how America’s power is perceived around the world. Are there allies? What about the Communists in China and Russia? Also, how does the change in politics affect society and commerce? No clues are really provided.
There are so many heroes here, Krueger struggles to make them sound distinct and he falls short. They all seem to marvel over nothing new except television, which is anachronistic considering TV was spreading almost immediately after the close of the war. His ponderous narrative captioning is a reminder of [[[Planet X]]] and [[[Justice]]], previous collaborations with Ross. Now, though, it’s been overdone and something new was required. Also, you never name an army F-Troop since readers recall a sitcom, taking us out of the story.
Stephen Sadowski, no stranger to teams, drew the zero issue and does a nice job. The main miniseries drawn by Carlos Paul and colored by Debora Carita is far duller and less vibrant. Everything is dark and Paul does not do a great job differentiating the characters, their physiques or emotional expressions. There’s a dimness to the pages that doesn’t help the reader identify the characters or place.
Issues #0-7 are collected here, setting the stage for spin-offs and additional stories for 2009, so this is a Must Read if you like the characters or creators. It’d be nice if the [[[Wizard]]] story appeared here as well. The hardcover is a visual treat as we see all the covers, the character sketches and the like. The 12-page Golden Age Character Reference shows us far many more characters than are seen in the story but we’re told nothing about who they are and why the ones chosen found their way into the story. There’s a complete lack of contextual explanation about who these people were and what their appeal was to Barrucci or Ross. An historical essay was essential and is sorely missed.
There’s a lot of promise and potential here, but this first storyline is murky and misguided so one hopes as the focus tightens, the characters come into sharper relief and we can discover their appeal for ourselves.
Hmmm,Kinda like Kingdom Come where outside of the pivotal cast we are introduced to the dozens of characters who stand around looking heroic and redesigned with little explaination of who they are or what they do besides fight.Pretty looking, dull reading.
Thanks for this review. I had this book on my wishlist due to my liking of the creators. However the writing sounds very sloppy and this book appears to be far inferior to what I expect from those involved. You've saved me some money – or at least redirected it to another title.
I purchased this series and Marvel's answer to it, The Twelve. The Twelve knocked this horrid book out of the water. Alex Ross is a talented painter, but left to his own devices, leads these bloated projects into the middle of nowhere. The interiors are muddy and dull. The POV character is just an unlikeable Norman McCay… and the whole "Evil Corp of the Dynamic Family" is just boring. I'd recommend The Twelve for a true "fish out of water" experience, using golden age heroes. To Mr. Ross and Kruger, I say this as one of your fans no soured by my spending on this series: return to what made you great.It's one thing to be called "the 500 pound gorilla of comics"… it's another to abuse that power.
I think that answers the question as to why Mark Waid chose not to do a Kingdom Come sequel.
Than what was that lousy "The Kingdom" mini he did? I'm glad the recent Geoff Jones/Alex Ross JSA story flushed "The Kingdom" down the drain.
Dunno but Ross certainly made no secret when complaining about Waid initially not wanting to do a sequel. Didn't read The Kingdom but it sounded like there was a feud between the two.Bottom line, Ross thinks he's a writer, he's NOT!
ding ding ding
Oh!Did I win?
Yes, yes you did!
Having read both Project Superpowers and The Twelve, I'd have to agree that The Twelve is the superior work (hey, it's been a while since the last issue of The Twelve, hasn't it?). The characters are much better defined as characters and the art reads a lot better.
I bought this series as it was being released. It's a shame Sandowski couldn't draw the whole series as he is a much better artist than Carlos Paul. I hate the whole "we're going to print and color it from the pencils" thing. This book needs an inker! Don't like the coloring either. One aspect of this I wish someone would've reported on, or could report on if it's still ongoing, is that AC Comics has taken issue with Alex Ross & Dynamite over the rights of some of the characters used. Meanwhile, Erik Larsen used some of these characters in a recent issue of Savage Dragon and supposedly plans on doing one shots on some of them.
The whole "color from the pencil" technique can be done well… I mean Alex did an AMAZING job on his Kingdom Come special issue, in my opinion. But this book's art suffered from Ross's strong conceptual work and amazing costume design (things he excels at) being funneled though less than talented hands. Concerning Mark Waid's "the Kingdom" special… well, some things just plain don't need prequels.
A handful survived through the changes in publishing and most of the others were consigned to the second hand shops and the vault of memory.And Don Markstein's Toonopedia.