Superhero

Superman / Gen13

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