Hero Squared X-tra Sized Special #1Atomeka
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Joe Abraham
Review by Fletcher Adams
The Least You Need to Know The creative minds behind Formerly Known as the Justice League introduce the world to Milo and his other-dimensionally counterpart, Captain Valor.
While in high school, young Milo met an old seer at a museum during a school field trip. The old man granted Milo the Atlantean Crystal, which imbued him with amazing powers. Chosen by fate to be humankinds champion, Milo became the first of many heroes the mighty Captain Valor. Or did he just blow off the field trip and become an underachieving wanna-be, slacker filmmaker? It all depends on which side of reality you ended up on. Fortunately for comic fans, it no longer matters, as the vile Lord Caliginous destroyed Captain Valors reality and banished him to the other.
X-tra Sized Special (the X is because an x on the cover never hurts sales) is essentially a pilot for what I assume is hoped to become a new series. If you enjoyed Giffen and DeMatteis Justice League, youll enjoy this book. The actual story involving Caliginous isnt exactly a rocket-buster (the shock ending is nicely foreshadowed by Milo and Blaines Shyamalan/Serling analogy however), but its enjoyable enough and establishes the characters and their odd-couple relationship. It puts a humorous slant on the well-worn parallel reality gimmick so that the text heavy tale is fun. DeMatteis and Giffen are as good as ever with their comic timing and fun dialogue. If there was a fault to the story, it is that its a little too derivative of their Justice League work (it doesnt take much to imagine familiar DC characters from their run plugged into the Hero Squared characters). Even still, Hero Squared is still more entertaining than half of the superhero comic books on the market.
Joe Abraham capably pulls off the comic timing needed artistically and finds a nice middle ground between realistic and comic styles. The later pages seem to lack the detail of his earlier ones (in many cases, without any background at all), while others have an unfinished look to them. Abraham certainly appears to have the raw ability, but I wonder if pairing him with an inker or finisher might have improved the final product. Matt Nelsons coloring pulls the project together, using a bright palette, which invites readers into a simpler time of superhero comics.
The Bottom Line Not a great comic, but easily an above average effort. With the set-up elements out of the way, Id certainly be interested in seeing a follow-up effort.
