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November 19 2010

ICON Comics (Marvel)
Story: Mark Millar
Art: Lenil Yu

Mark Millar makes a great point. At the end of this issue, he describes a discussion he had with Stan Lee, where Lee asked, “why I was always playing with his characters when I had a chance to do what he did and create my own?” It’s a great point; many of today’s big writers don’t create anything new. Mark Millar’s done some great work with core Marvel characters in the past, such as the Civil War miniseries and the “Old Man Logan” arc in Wolverine, even creating a new spin on established characters in The Ultimates. In recent years, Millar has been focusing on his own creations like Wanted and Kick-Ass and now Superior.

Immediately we’re introduced to the character Superior, in a way. In this world, Superior is a character in a series of movies. Parallels are made between Superior and Superman, portraying him as a relic of a bygone era, a hero too good-natured to succeed in today’s modern world. At the theater, we meet the true main character of the comic, teenager Simon Pooni, a former basketball standout now living with Multiple Sclerosis. His life is a constant struggle, but he makes the most out of it; other kids mock and tease him, but he has a loving mother and the best friend he could ask for. In a couple pages, I feel Millar did a great job relating life with MS to the reader; it’s the little thing that really changed Simon’s life.

Then a monkey appears. Yep, a monkey. One night, Simon is visited by… something… in the form of a monkey, saying he has been selected as the most appropriate person on Earth to receive the Magic Wish. It’s an incredibly goofy premise, and we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. The wish itself, however, is pulled off pretty spectacularly. One minute, Simon’s standing there with his crutches, the next he’s Superior. He’s told he has one week to show the monkey what he’s capable of and sent home.

It’s the way Simon reacts to the whole ordeal that makes Superior so interesting. He doesn’t fly around and test his strength out, marveling over how amazing this is. No, he freaks the hell out. When he gets home, he finds out he’s been gone for a whole day and his mom called the police. What does a normal kid do in a situation like this? He bails. This is what makes Millar’s writing so fresh; even in crazy circumstances, his characters act the way we expect them to.

Lenil Yu’s art is almost a little too sketchy for my tastes. It’s most noticeable in his faces and that poor cop looks like Clayface from Batman. The opening “movie” scene show that Yu is much more accustomed to drawing superheroes and action than normal people standing around talking, so my appreciation of the art will weigh heavily on the direction the story takes.

While this first issue may be nothing more than setup, I think Millar may have done it again. Superior walks the fine line between whimsical and realistic, and the end result is something relatable, yet still full of potential for a good superhero story.

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