Superior #1 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Leinil Yu (pencils), Gerry Alanguilan (inks), Dave McCaig (colors) & Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: A young boy get’s his wish from a space monkey.

What’s Good: This is very good and understated Mark Millar.  Superior is absolutely nothing like his recent creator-owned projects such as Nemesis or Kick Ass.  There is no wanton violence, no ethnic slurs, no sexuality, etc.  This is just a nice little story about a hard-luck kid who gets his wish granted to him.

This is probably a minor spoiler, but the story revolves around a teenage boy who was a star athlete at his school until he develops multiple sclerosis.  The MS robs him of his ability to play sports and even the ability to walk, but what hurts most is that all but one of his friends drop him; not necessarily out of cruelty, but simply because kids are often too self-centered to make sure to include their handicapped old friend.  Then one evening, he wakes to find a space monkey on his bed who grants him one wish and before you know it, he has morphed into Superior (a Superman analog). Now what??

There are a LOT of ways that Millar can go with this story.  Will we learn more about that space monkey?  Will it play out like the movie Big, but with super-powers?  Will the kid go on a mission to save the world?  Will he beat up the bully?

However, the best part of this initial issue was Millar characterization of the boy’s last remaining friend.  We all know people like this kid, they’re just super nice people.  They stick by their friends even when it isn’t easy and we all wish we could be a little more like this nice kid.