When I first heard about this crossover, to say I was sceptic is an understatement. Hell I was flat out making fun of the crazy fools at Wildstorm for thinking up this dumb crossover. Traditionally crossovers don’t work because they involve both parties fighting and no one coming out on top. So when this crossover came out and I ended up loving every single page in the book, I’ve got to admitt I was eating LOADS of humble pie.

I should have known better to be honest. While Adam Hughes is one of my favourite artists EVER, he’s also an absolutely fantastic writer in his own right. If there’s one person that has handled the Gen13 kids better than in the superb original run from J Scott Campbell, Jim Lee and Alex Garner is this man here. He just gets these characters and he’s got a brilliant ear for dialogue.

The story centres around the Gen13 kids (they’re enhanced meta-humans due to being the offspring of some hardcore military types that had loads of weird things done to them to enhance them to make them the ultimate soldiers) going off on one of their field trips. As it’s Catlin’s turn she wants to go to Metropolis. Reason being she’s got a massive crush on Superman. Meanwhile the rest of the gang absolutely hate the idea being very vocal about their discontent about the choice of venue.

While they’re watching Superman ’save the city from another alien invasion’ things get a bit out of hand and he knocks the powerhouse of the group unconcious in the fight. Problem is she’s got amnesia. This leads to her getting lost in the city of Metropolis and the rest of the gang searching for her and so the story begins.

This is easily one of the funnest books I’ve got as it combines superb characterisation, a very warm story that respects and portrays all these characters perfectly. The dialogue is both sharp and extremely funny at times.

If it was any other artist then Adam Hughe’s story would be the star of the show. However this is a special treat and the sublime Lee Bermejo seriously shows off what he’s actually capable of. To my knowledge this is Lee’s first series where everyone stopped and took notice of the man. He’d done a couple of things in the past however this was the perfect vehicle for him to be elevated and loved both in and out of the Wildstorm Studio as one of the artists to watch in the future.

He draws real people. Their costumes are real. They get dirty, they get ripped, they have creases. People WEAR shoes. It’s a crazy concept, however if you pick up and superhero comic their footwear is always something that’s completely and utterly ambigous. You see Lee’s characters actually breathe and live. That’s honestly the best compliment I can give an artist. I might run out of things to say when I review Bermejo’s other fantastic crossover, but that’s for another time. Oh yeah and he draws the best Lois I’ve seen in a good long while, maybe ever.

Rather than use the standard colour palette usually used for superhero comics, the Wildstorm team expertly use slighly less muted colours. Were the colours need to pop off the page they’re done in a subtle way. This adds to the realism that is captured by the artists. The colours are the perfect compliment to the artwork, enhancing but not distracting from any element on the page.

Writer: Adam Hughes
Penciller: Lee Bermejo
Inker: John Nyberg
Colourist: Guy Major, Ben Dimagmaliw, Ian Hannin
Letterer: Mike Heisler
Publisher: DC Comics / Wildstorm

This series was originally published by Fanboy Entertainment. When their publishing model fell through Oni Press came to the rescue and saved this absolute gem. I think because of this that J Torres brings most of his indie work first to Oni rather than moving on to other pastures like Image Comics or whatever. While Ait Planetlar have Brian Wood as their golden boy, Marvel have Bendis and Millar, Image Comics have Robert Krikman, I like to think that Oni have Torres.

He has written some great stuff but this little 3 issue mini-series is what made me a Torres fan that hunts out everything that he does. The man knows how to write a good yarn that doesn’t take itself too seriously and makes you smile at the end of it, while at the same time making you CRAVE for more of the story. You get a full story, however he sets things up that he can keep going and that’s an amazing talent and one that I appreciate greatly.

Sidekicks is a great little series that will remind you of the good things of school. The story is set at the Shuster Academy for super humans as they teach them to become responsible adults and know how to control their powers. Much like the X-men, except the world were Sidekicks is set isn’t actually explored in any detail, allowing Torres to write about High School kids with a bit of a twist. It’s that twist that makes it fun. While most of these kind of stories are done to death, Torres doesn’t make the story about their powers, as you’re not allowed to use your powers EVER except during PE class. So whenever the powers are shown they’re done to great effect.

This particular tale follows Terry as she’s decides whether or not to join the Academy. Meanwhile there’s a mystery at hand with a bunch of amateur vigilantes from the Academy called Pow, Biff and Bam. Their identity is a secret and is never told flat out who they are but it’s pretty damn obvious anyway, which again is a great way to not get bogged into the cliches. Let the reader work something out for himself. Just make it obvious enough and everything will be fine.

This was the first time I was introduced to Takeshi’s work and instantly you take a serious liking to his style. His work oozes with personality. Each page is filled with little details that most artists wouldn’t bother with, mainly due to time constraints. I think he does excell however in showing these teens, where their body language and their facial expressions can tell the story even if Torres was asleep for a while (which he never is).

Sidekicks is one of my favourite teen books ever. Within 100 odd pages Torres and Miyazawa manage to get me interested in these characters and care about these characters; others have spent 100s of pages to get the same effect without much success.

Writer: J Torres
Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa
Letterer: Takeshi Miyazawa?
Book Designer: Keith Wood
Publisher: Oni Press