Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy

 

by Steve Englehart (Author, Contributor), Chris Claremont  (Author, Contributor), Doug Moench  (Author, Contributor),

Publisher : ‎ Marvel (July 9, 2014)

Softcover, 390 pages

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“I conceived something very large. My hero would go from being an unpleasant, introverted jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe, and I would tie it into my then-new interest in astrology. After his earthbound beginning, his mind would be opened step by step, with a fast-action story on Mercury, a love story on Venus, a war story on Mars, and so on out to the edge of the solar system, and then beyond. But—after his earthbound beginning, where I established him as an unpleasant, introverted jerk, I left Marvel, so no one ever saw what he was to become” Steven Engleheart, co-creator of Star Lord.

Many people won’t know the character Star Lord outside of the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, and I must admit to being one of them. He was a minor character for most of my time collecting comics from the Marvel Universe. From what I can tell from these early issues of the magazine Marvel Preview he really wasn’t meant to be. It was an attempt by the company to tap into the rapidly expanding science fiction market. As such none of the stories here reference any other part of the Marvel Universe and are pretty straight forward science fiction fare, with an extremely powerful protagonist who has a living ship and other advanced gadgets at his command. Most were written in the ‘70s  - except for the mini-series from 1997 at the end of the book - and the writing reflects that time period. After these appearances, the character disappeared until the 2004 Annihilation event where he finally becomes part of the 616 standard Marvel Universe.

Written by a young Chris Claremont, pre-X-Men days, what really stands out here is the amazing artwork. Perhaps the only thing which is memorable about the character is the amazing array of artists who worked on his title. John Bryne, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gene Colan, Carmine Infantino, along with a host of others. The authorial duties were taken over by Doug Moench for a few issues of Marvel Spotlight.  These are the best Star Lord stories in the book.

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Boy Maximortal Vol 2

 

by Rick Veitch  (Author)

Publisher: ‎ Independently published (March 23, 2020)

Softcover, 102 pages

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Picking right up where the previous volume ended - even the numbering continues the same starting with page 54 - the plot thickens and the weird desperate threads of the first Maximortal series begin to congeal. We see the purpose of the True Man comics which is to actually educate the now adolescent Maximortal on how to behave in modern society, as well as entertain millions of children. It is a winding, twisting road traveled by this comic and I’m looking forward to seeing where this series is going next. 

One problem I have though, it that it seems the author is gearing up the story to be some sort of “anatomy of a superhero” story and, quite frankly, it's been done before. The archetypal superhero has been analyzed down to its atomic structure. I don’t mind a weird story, never tried before- or tried before in a different way, but what more is there to say meta wise about the superhero. Hopefully I’m wrong and the whole previous paragraph was just a waste of time. 

As with the previous volume only about half of the book deals with the titular characters. The rest is filled up with old sketches of the author and a few more stories. A silent one called Rebus, a splash page retrospective on the life of Sharon Tate, a post-apocalyptic tale called “Sounds in the Silence” - it has a happy ending, a rarity for this genre- a prose Sherlock Holmes short story called “A Visitor in White” and a weird one-page short called “Kasha Varniskes”. This extra material is much better than the first volume, which seemed to be made up primarily of filler.   

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Boy Maximortal Vol 1

 

by Rick Veitch  (Author)

Publisher ‏: ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1st edition (October 18, 2017)

Softcover, 100 pages

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This is the continuation of a story I thought dead and incomplete. Thank goodness for the easy independent publishing market or this might never have seen the light of day. The original seven issue Maximortal was a very weird piece of literature. At first it offered the idea that if a baby, well beyond the age of reason, had the powers like Superman does, how could a human couple possibly raise him, teach him anything, or even discipline him without getting torn apart? 

The answer of course is that it couldn’t. The government intercedes and eventually the creature is destroyed. Yet it still remains somehow and is reinvigorating itself through the burgeoning comic book industry, reinventing itself as True Man - an obvious Superman analog - through which it seemingly will emerge. This tale is as much about the history of comics - specifically superhero comics - so those who aren’t familiar with it might be a little confused. Personally, I’ve often thought that Rick Veitch was a wildly underrated writer and author and I’m glad more of his material is being published. This book, along with a lot of Veitch’s materials, leaves you wanting more. 

One thing to mention though is that only the first 53 pages out of the hundred or so are part of the Maximortal story. The rest is filled up with sketches and an unrelated short four page story about heroes having sex. That’s not to say the book isn’t worth it, the price being fairly reasonable, but there is more than your normal amount of filler in this book. The story continues in Boy Maximortal 2. 

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The Mighty Crusaders: Origins of a Superteam

by Various (Author)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Archie Comics; First Printing edition (December 1, 2003)

Softcover, 96 pages

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"It was the 1960s. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko became overnight 'number one with a bullpen' success stories as the Marvel superhero style took the comic book world by storm. By January 1966, the ultra-camp Pop-Art exaggeration of Batman on TV exploded across America's culturally 'vast wasteland', imbuing art, design, and clothing styles with new Pop sensibilities - along with assorted 'Pows', 'Zaps' and 'Whams'. These were wild times! Super-heroes were in and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. Charleton, Dell/Gold Key, Tower, ACG, Harvey and others leaped into the super-hero business, hoping to emulate not only DC's prosperity, but especially Marvel's torrid success in the changing marketplace. And then, it was Archie Comic Group's turn…" from the introduction

They're not superheroes, they're ultra-heroes. That's the difference Archie comics put on their superheroes. Written by Jerry Siegel of Superman fame, this series reincarnated several old school heroes - many created by the legendary team of Kirby and Simon - The Shield, the first patriotic themed superhero; The Black Hood, and The Comet, while teaming them up with Fly-Man and Fly-Girl. Fly-Man being another Kirby and Simon creation called The Fly, but his name was changed to be more like that of Spiderman. This book doesn't actually contain any reprints of The Mighty Crusaders comic except for the first issue, but mainly consists of issues 31 - 33 of Fly-Man. This is after all the origin of the team.

Don't expect too much from these issues. They were written in the 1960s aimed at the thirteen year old market and at a time when the 60s Batman show was at full hypes, meaning comics were all about camp then. This the writing is deliberately over-blown and purple, with much of the dialogue describing what was happening in the panel. Granted this wasn't much different than any other super comic, but it's laid on extra thick here. The comics are very much self-aware of their campiness. While the parallels to the Avengers are obvious, the real test of any super comic is the villains. And they are the campiest bunch you might ever see. We have The Spider, a very similar creation to a character that Siegal wrote in England Alias the Spider; Eterno the Tyrant, the former king of sunken Atlantis, disturbed from a five million year sleep; The Destructor, a weird science villain with a sonic weapon; The Hangman and The Wizard, two golden-age heroes turned villain; and The Brain Emperor a weak character from another planet with psychic powers And who I forgot about the second I turned the final page.

The Mighty Crusaders didn't last long, only about seven issues. Fly-Man didn't last much longer. A victim of market oversaturation and its own camp tone. While the Batman series was a success, it seems most comic collectors wanted their heroes to take themselves and their situations seriously. Camp is only fun short term.

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Taskmaster: Unthinkable

  

by Fred Van Lente  (Author), Jefte Palo (Illustrator)

Publisher : ‎ Marvel (May 18, 2011)

Softcover, 112 pages

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The Taskmaster is a minor character from a forgettable Avengers storyline, who has made good in modern comics - as happens from time to time, think The Punisher. From the beginning he was a different type of supervillain, blessed/cursed with photographic reflexes, which allows him to mimic any fighting style he witnesses at the cost of his long and short-term memory. Instead of a criminal enterprise, the Taskmaster earned his daily bread by training henchmen for terrorist organizations and supervillains. The character has always popped up in strange places.

The story is that for reasons unknown a billion dollar bounty is put on the Taskmaster’s head. To discover who and why, he has to fight hordes of his former students and delves into his own forgotten past. I liked the story here a lot. Centering on the Taskmaster, a man who constantly forgets huge chunks of his past, cannot be easy, but the revelations in this mini-series are fairly big, interesting and make sense within the context of the Marvel Universe.

The problem I have with this story is not the excellent art, nor most of the developments, but the ridiculousness of the main villain, Redshirt the Uber Henchmen with his organization Minions International Liberation Front (MILF) who is attempting to destroy the Taskmaster. I don’t mind some over-the-top action in a superhero comic, but this injection of silliness is just off for what ends up a pretty tragic story for the Taskmaster. Not only is this villain pretty stupid, the author feels the need to explain this obvious joke to us, thinking that we must all be morons for reading his material.

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Foolkiller: Psycho Therapy

 

by Dalibor Talajic (Illustrator), Max Bemis (Writer)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Marvel (July 11, 2017)

Softcover, 112 pages

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There have been four characters calling themselves the Foolkiller, this deals with the second one, who is now out of a mental institution, gotten a degree in psychoanalysis, and is attempting to cure psychopath supervillains on behalf of what he believes is SHIELD. When he can’t cure them of their foolishness, he kills them. This is the basic plot at the beginning and it stays good for a while, but either the author became bored or sales were down and the story became very meta quickly. It was ground-breaking when Grant Morrison did it back in the ‘80s with Animal Man. Now it’s old hat, especially when you toss Deadpool in there as this comic does. I suppose it was supposed to come across as witty, but instead it seems lazy, as if the writer couldn’t come up with a serious plot, or thought they were better than the material so they decided to half-ass it with ‘witty banter” and now-dated pop culture references. Either way, I’ve read the meta-commentary and its been done before.

I know this sounds stupidly fanboy, but it really bugged me that the Foolkiller presented here, Greg Salinger is brown haired rather than the blonde he has always been portrayed as - and this brown hair appears in all of his flashbacks, so it's a definite oversight. Maybe it’s stupid, but I have mad love for the Foolkiller limited series from the 1990s - which has never been collected for some weird reason - and it is easily one of the darkest and best comics Marvel has ever produced. So when the third Foolkiller shows up, not written by comic legend Steve Gerber, and a piss-poor job is done in writing this character, I have to tune it out.

As you may have guessed by now, I really didn’t enjoy this comic too much. The art by Dalibor Talajic was excellent however, stylish yet sticking to the Marvel esthetic. It was probably the only thing that kept me reading, as the story got worse and worse. The very end however wsa good and fit in with the character of the second Foolkiller, even if the third Foolkiller was really a different character than I had read before. I really wished he hadn’t been ruined like this.

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Project Superpowers: The Owl (Superhero)

 

by J.T. Krul  (Author), Heubert Kahn Michael (Artist), Alex Ross (Artist)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Dynamite Entertainment (January 4, 2017)

Softcover, 166 pages

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This is part of Dynamite publishers Project Superheroes line where the writers took nearly every single public domain superhero from the forties and fifties and shoved them all in the same comic, creating an instant universe with a self-built backstory. While the line is almost defunct, if not actually defunct by this time, it managed to reassert a lot of old characters who were left out in the cold. The problem that a lot of people seemed to have - based solely on what I’ve read online, none of my friends even heard of it, but then they’re all illiterate - is that most of the characters had been in limbo so long, most modern readers had no idea who they were. Second, a lot of them had redundant powers, backstories, and even costumes. I remember the original series lacked differentiating one from the other - in fact most of the time they didn’t even try to give some backstory.

Which is where I supposed these spin-off volumes come in. To tell and reflect on the personal tales of those characters involved in the bigger picture dynamics. The Owl is their latest, and probably last, addition to this group. The character of the The Owl was first published by Dell comics in Crackajack Funnies #25 and had a brief popular flourish for about three years, before being dropped and forgotten for decades.

The character was really a generic makeup of other superheroes. A policeman who found being a vigilante foiled crime much easier than following the law. He was fitted with tons of gadgets, including a “black light” which threw darkness instead of light, and a specialized Owl Car. His girlfriend discovered his secret identity and then joined him as Owl Girl. I mean, how many other superheroes fall into this category? In reality, The Owl comes across as a poor man’s Batman and that is nearly impossible to shake off, but the tale in this book does raise some interesting questions about moral absolutism.

The story presented in this volume, deals with The Owl being literally a man out of time. All the heroes having emerged from their magical prison after eighty years, threw him for a loop. He especially misses his fiancée, Owl Girl, and then discovers that her granddaughter has become the new Owl Girl. Unfortunately, her style of vigilantism does not match his. This new owl Girl is violent, nearly unhinged, and plunders the crooks to support her lifestyle. Worst of all, she does not hesitate to kill.  The Owl has a difficult decision ahead of him.

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Excalibur: Weird War III (Superhero)

 

by Michael Higgins  (Author)

Publisher ‏: ‎ Marvel Books (May 1, 1991)

Softcover, 64 pages

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This is a spin-off graphic novel from the Excalibur series from the 1980s, which itself was a spin-off title from the X-Men after the Mutant Massacre event, where it seemed a lot of the X-Men died, but they were really just hiding. Personally I always thought the Excalibur was an excuse for Chris Claremont to play around with a lot of Alan Moore’s ideas from his run on Captain Britain - those first twenty issues and the initial graphic novel certainly used a lot of his ideas. It was made up primarily of Shadowcat, Captain Britain, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and the rest. 

Some people loved this title, some hated it. It certainly tended to be a lot more light hearted and tongue in cheek than most  X-titles - which was not a bad thing. This story is an addition to an early Excalibur story line, The Cross-Time Caper, which ran from issues 12 -24. Apparently it was originally slated for nine issues, but another three were tacked on, along with this graphic novel. In the original Cross-Time Caper, the heroes mainly fought with their alternative universe - Earth 593 - counterparts from a world where the Nazi’s one and Charles Xavier was one of Hitler’s top men. 

In this story, somehow both universes - 616 and 593 - are merging and Excalibur finds their personalities fused with their evil counterparts. The team must first discover what is happening to both worlds, and then discover a method of separating the realities. The art is great, kinetic, and full of energy, but the story has a few plot holes and seems a bit rushed. They could’ve used another ten pages to make things really flow. But it was still a decent enough story, just not the most memorable one. 

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Will Eisner's The Spirit Book II (Superhero)

 

by Kyle Baker (Author, Artist), Darwyn Cooke  (Author, Artist), et. al.

 Publisher ‏: ‎ DC Comics; Assumed First Edition (October 1, 2008)

 Hardcover, 176 pages

 Amazon Listing

This is the second volume of DC’s attempt to revive the Will Eisner’s classic - and I mean classic as in having been created in the Golden Age of the 1940s -character The Spirit. It collects issues 7 - 13. Unfortunately, the other 19 issues of this series was never collected into graphic novel form. But they are all available from My Comic Shop for a relatively cheap price - less than cover price. 

I think D.C. paid a lot for the rights to this character because I remember them pushing this comic hard, as well as an abortive attempt at an alternative universe called Firstwave. This was put out, I believe in connection with that absolutely awful 2008 film, The Spirit, which proves once and for all Frank Miller can’t direct. This comic is heads-and-shoulders above the film however, with Denny Colt returning from the dead - wink wink - to fight crime as the domino masked hero, The Spirit. 

A certain percentage of critics have hated on this series, claiming that it was not as good as the original. I have to stop them there. In my opinion, and I have read the bulk of Eisner’s work, these stories are just as good as the originals. Granted, most of the characters are recycled from Eisner’s work, so it is still dependent on the creator’s ingenuity. In fact the story, Sand Serif - originally created for Eisner’s aborted character John Law, then rewritten for The Spirit - simply retells the same story, only with new art. 

And the art here is phenomenal. How could it not be with talents like the late Darwin Cooke, Kyle Baker, Eduardo Risso, and Chris Sprouse, among others, working on the stories? They succeed in retaining the action and tension of the original series, as well as putting their original stamps on classic material. Well worth a look. 

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Batman: The Order of the Beasts (Superhero)

 

by Eddie Campbell (Illustrator), Daren White (Author)

Publisher : DC Comics; 1st edition (January 1, 2004)

Softcover, 64 pages

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This book was printed under DCs Elseworlds imprint, which were alternate realities which deviated from the established continuity of DC's regular comics. This had been done before with DC “imaginary stories” in some of the 1950s and 60s and the Marvel title What If - BTW why haven’t they collected any of the second volume of What If which came out in the late 80s? All mine where destroyed by a flood, I remember them being pretty good. Elseworlds however went above and beyond, putting the characters into radically different scenarios and settings.

This could almost count as a regular Batman story, except that it takes place in 1939. Which actually is within the timeline of all Batman stories, but as we know the characters origin has to be retconned every few decades, so this is beyond the current Batman’s timeline. The scene takes place in pre-WWII London, about a year into when Batman first begins his vigilante career. It’s nice to see Eddie Campbell’s art put to color for once, which is far beyond the norm.

The plot itself is actually a little silly, while in London, Batman stumbles across a secret society called The Order of the Beasts - a member of which is apparently Winston Churchill - who dress up like animals, just like Batman. Their mission is apparently to try and influence England back to a similar time, but it’s mostly spent in hedonistic pleasure. One by one the members are murdered and their bodies displayed according to an old nursery rhyme. Naturally, Batman has to save the day and does so with gusto.

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Superman's Metropolis (Superhero)

 

by Jean-Marc Lofficier, Randy Lofficier, Roy Thomas, Ted McKeever (Illustrator)

Publisher : DC Comics (January 1, 1997)

 Softcover, 69 pages

 Amazon Listing

This was back when comics could afford to take weird risks, and thus was born DC’s Elseworlds. This imprint’s comics were alternate realities which deviated from the established continuity of DC's regular comics. This had been done before with DC “imaginary stories” in some of the 1950s and 60s and the Marvel title What If - BTW why haven’t they collected any of the second volume of What If which came out in the late 80s? All mine where destroyed by a flood, I remember them being pretty good. Elseworlds however went above and beyond, putting the characters into radically different scenarios and settings. The most classic being probably Red Son where Superman lands in Russia instead of Kansas, The Doom Which came to Gotham, Mike Mignola’s Lovecraftian Batman take, and of course Kingdom Come. 

This book combines the origin of Superman with the legendary silent film sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis. It’s incredible how well these two stories connect. This story essentially retells Metropolis’ plot with the cast of Superman in its place. They’re all there - Clark Kent, his father and mother, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Lex Luthor,  Lana Lang, and Lois Lane. Interestingly, the metaphor of the original is underlined by the use of Superman, since the film hyper-textualizes various aspects of Neitzian philosophy, ie. the rise of the Superman to dominate society. This is reflected in a literal way with Superman having been “technologically hypnotized” by Luthor to forget his alien past and his superpowers. Thus when the moment comes for the Superman to arise, he literally finds his power and destroys the oppressor.  

The only snag I would say is that if you haven’t seen the film Metropolis then you are missing out on the nuisances of this work and McKeever’s artistic style which blends itself perfectly to the German Expressionism of the 1920s. Without the context, it’s just a weird Superman story in an old fashioned sci-fi setting.

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Insufferable, Vol. 4: Home Field Advantage (Superhero)

by Mark Waid (Author), Peter Krause (Illustrator)

Publisher : IDW Publishing; Illustrated edition (May 9, 2017)

Softcover, 100 pages

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The fourth and final story in the Insufferable line. A rich man, methodical and obsessed, becomes a costumed vigilante and eventually trains his son to take his place. They become Nocturnous and Galahad. However, the son gets tired of being put in the corner and reveals his identity to the world. His father is forced to go into hiding, but can't funnel his fortune away fast enough. The son becomes a media giant, and a brand, spending more time advertising products and posing for social media than defeating villains. Now the final stage is set. The pair’s home city has been invaded by an army of villains from their past.

Several people felt that the series went on too long. That perhaps the third section slowed down the action and their interest in the characters. And while they may have points in their criticism, I felt that the long internal journeys of the tortured protagonists paid off well. People with such deep psychological issues can’t resolve them overnight. It usually takes something big and catastrophic to alter the destructive path of two zealous individuals. In this case, the event is over-the-top, but that’s what you want in a superhero comic.

Most people expect the big revelation and change, followed by confessional to come from the younger Galahad. Who is brasher and more obnoxious, at least on the surface. The title “Insufferable” can easily be applied to both protagonists. Nocturnus secretly enjoys demonstrating his son’s weaknesses to him, while hobbling him as an effective partner. Galahad has a public image to maintain and is thus hungry to collect bragging rights regardless of what he actually achieves. The father who will never treat his son like an adult and the son who hasn’t grown out of that blaming dad for everything stage. They make for a toxic team-up. And a fun comic.

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The Final Night (Superhero)

 

by Karl Kesel, Ron Marz, Stuart Immonen (Illustrator), Mike McKone (Illustrator)

Publisher : DC Comics (March 1, 1998)

Softcover, 144 pages

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This was one of those major events which ran rampant throughout DC and Marvel. Every year it seemed some new event swept across all the various series, meaning that at least one - if not two - issues of your favorite comic was interrupted by some overarching plot which you may or (more likely) may not care about. The collection of The Final Night series contains only the original series without the cross-over issues. As such the focus from issue to issue is a little haphazard, shifting this way than that

Unlike other crossover events published by DC, the conflict of The Final Night did not revolve around a conventional villain. It was primarily a story of survival that focused on the main characters performing disaster response, while attempting to prevent impending mass extinction of all life on Earth. At the end of each issue was an in-story website feature written by S.T.A.R. Labs, giving information updates and emergency support to residents of the DC Universe as the crisis progressed.

There is quite a lot of background needed to understand this book. Superman's enemies destroyed his home city, driving Hal insane and causing him to destroy the Green Lantern Corps, giving up his role as Green Lantern and becoming the nigh-omnipotent Parallax in the process. In a few years, Hal went from being an iconic hero to a murderous villain.  Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, suddenly went nuts and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and seemingly half the universe in Emerald Twilight. Jordan turned up as the master villain behind Extant in Zero Hour. With Final Night, this cycle comes to a merciful close.

Basically this book was the attempt to redeem Hal Jordan while giving him a swan song. The plot is weird but basically revolves around an old Legion of Super-Heroes villain called the Sun Eater coming to devour Earth’s sun. The world is saved in the end, of course, and by an unlikely hero.

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Mack the Knife/ Go Man! Relax! (Superhero)

 

by Starlen Widener, Bill & Baxter (Author) Matt Wagner (Introduction)

Publisher : Caliber Press; First Edition (January 1, 1989)

Softcover, 144 pages

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This book is a rarity. Not just in numbers - I dare you to find it, it will be a chore- but in style. It is an old fashioned flip book, which became a style back in the 1970s when paperback publishers would print two novellas together, but you would have to flip the book over to read each one. Thus there were two covers for each volume - as in here. From what I’ve understood, the fad started because of a printer’s mistake, but the publisher was too cheap to just toss out the bunch, so he just kept the book as is and threw a new cover on its back. Most of these were laid out like old films. You had the A story -a classic novella or a named author - and then the B story. And, of course, the regular paperback price was applied to a book which might be only half good.

This book was put out by Caliber Press (now called Caliber Comics), a variation of which has fallen and risen several times over the last four decades. It’s probably best known for its zombie comic, Dead World. This was its first incarnation in the 1980s, when the dream of the direct market was in full swing, and hadn’t yet faded off into the current nightmare we are facing. This book reprints two stories from another folded indie-publisher, Nerve Publications - which started out with the mini-comics craze, moving onto fanzines, then regular comics before folding due to lack of funds. Both of these appeared in its anthology magazine Nerve before it went out of business.

What would pass for the A story here is a series called Go-Man. Three parts to the story. I sure wish there was a lot more. It touched on tropes just coming into fashion in the superhero world. The clash between old and new values in heroes (essentially, creators trying to push the comics code authority to its absolute limits). The reality of a business-funded superhero and what the genetic manipulation of humans would ultimately result in. It’s a dense, realistic world. A story essentially ahead of its time. While the art is not the best, the writing more than makes up for it. 

The B story is “Mack the Knife” a funny animal tale of an anthropomorphic shark - the titular Mack. He is a criminal on the run who breaks down in a small town, and attracts the unwanted attention of the thugs who live there and a hot woman. Hilarity ensues, along with a fair share of sex and violence. Fun fare all around.

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We Can Never Go Home (Superhero)

 

by Matthew Rosenberg, Patrick Kindlon, Josh Hood

Publisher : Black Mask Comics; Illustrated edition (December 22, 2015)

Softcover, 164 pages

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This book takes elements from several standard superhero elements and mixes them together with the boy and girl on-the-run-after- committing-a-crime trope. It isn’t the most unique concept for a superhero - or, more accurately, super powered comic as there are no real heroes in this story - but it does a lot with what it has. In the short space used here, a decent universe is crafted or hinted at. There is a much more nebulous universe lurking behind the tale of two dimwit runaways.

We have Madison, who secretly has the superpower to become bulletproof and beat the crap out of people when she becomes angry. She befriends Duncan, a high school misfit who waves his father’s gun around like a cock extension. She is tired of her life where she is forced to pretend to be normal, and Duncan is tired of not being able to fit in. Madison accidentally kills Duncan’s father and the two run off together. They sustain their runaway by ripping off a local drug dealer and then fighting the police.

Each decision they make drags them further and further down a hole to what will be a bad end. It seems that whenever one of them just about claws their way to the light, the other steps in a does something stupid to keep them on the run, wounded and with no money. The smartest thing Madison does is walk away from Duncan. They are each other’s kryptonite. Alone they might survive. Together their road ends at an early grave.

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