Danger Club Issues 1 & 2
Script: Landry Q. Walker
Art: Eric Jones
Colors: Michael "Rusty" Drake (assisted by Derek Hunter in #2)
Published by: Image
Price: $2.99 each
(Issues 1&2 available also digitally from Comixology for $1.99 each)
I picked up these first two issues of Danger Club in the comic store yesterday knowing nothing about the writer, artist, or story. They just looked interesting. I pretty much steer clear of established comics and focus more on new series. These two books ended up being quite a treat.
Without spending too much time on boring exposition, Landry Walker sets the stage for Danger Club in a few lines on the back of the front cover. Apparently, 3 months ago, all of the world's heroes went into space to battle against an "ultimate evil". It also says they were "summoned" to do it. We don't find out in these two issues who summoned them or what they were fighting against. I'm picturing some world destroying god-like force like Galactus. All we know is that the heroes never came back and are presumed dead.
What the heroes of our world left behind were their sidekicks or kids with superpowers but lacking in maturity, judgement, or a sense of right and wrong. Meanwhile, the force that took out their mentors is still moving towards Earth.
You would think the heroes that are left would be priming to defend the planet, but they have descended into an almost Lord of the Flies type scenario. Apollo (Superman), the most powerful of the heroes, has started handpicking an elite team through gladiatorial battles and is pushing his peers to worship him as a god. If he has to kill some of his fellow do-gooders to convince them, then so be it. It's up to one of his ex-teammates and friends, Kid Vigilante (Batman), to stop him.
Kid Vigilante has assembled his own team of allies: Fearless, a Nick Fury lookalike sporting cigar and ray gun. The Magician, who can use his mystical red fire for attack or as spatial gateways. Lastly, there's Yoshimi, a gearhead as small as the Wasp with the scientific know-how and gadgetry of Reed Richards. By the way, she also pilots a mech named Robot 9.
The question is, will Kid Vigilante be able bring all of the heroes together to defend their world against the unknown menace, or will they have to battle against their one-time allies, super-villains, and the government before that can happen?
I really enjoyed these two books even though they are really just a mish-mash of comics you have read before. Some series it seems to reference story-wise are Watchmen, Teen Titans, Kick-Ass, Kingdom Come, and Irredeemable/Incorruptible. In fact, maybe that would be the best way of putting the concept of Danger Club before you. If Alan Moore had used the Teen Titans as the characters in Watchmen and substituted in the main conflicts of Kingdom Come with the art style and bright violence of Kick-Ass, you would have Danger Club. It also reminds me a little of the glory days of the Avengers back in the mid 1970s to early 80s (before Yellowjacket starting beating up the Wasp). Except this book has a lot more violence. Also adding to the Watchmen atmosphere are the 1 page intros with art right out of Archie Comics that showed the characters of Danger Club inhappier times before things went to total shit in the present.
The theme or question of Kingdom Come, at least to me, was to make things right, sometimes you must use might. In order to tidy up the world, you have to hurt people. Kid Vigilante thinks what he is doing is right, but he had to kill people, just like Apollo did. So how is he any better? Back in the old days, heroes didn't have to worry about things like this. I remember distinctly every time a hero came to the point of going over the edge with a villain, they would always stop. They would say something like "there's a difference between you and me".....or "If I did that I would be just as bad as you". I kinda wonder if by the end of this series, maybe Vigilante might BE the main villain.
So far the series looks pretty epic and just throws us in without boring us with pages and pages of exposition and flasbacks of news reports on televisions or even god forbid, newspapers! These first two issues must have done pretty well sales-wise since the copies I have are both labeled "Second Printings". Issue # 3 comes out next Wednesday. I will definitely be there for that.
My Grade: A
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Twitter: @dangerclubcomic
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