As someone who never had any interest in at all in characters such as Nomad or Araña, I approached Young Allies #1 a little hesitantly. I had a passing knowledge of Gravity from reading Beyond and his string in Fantastic Four but not much other than that, and I’ve had little knowledge or interest in Firestar outside of Spider-man and His Amazing Friends. I’m not entirely sure what drew me to check this book out but, surprisingly, I’m rather happy I did. Sean McKeever has managed to assemble a truly eclectic team and what could have been a terribly boring book into a potentially interesting one.
In typical fashion, McKeever crafts a tale that inadvertently brings together a new team of heroes ranging from the high school to graduate school age. In order to do this, McKeever creates an all-new team of young villains to wreak havoc. Part of what drew me into this title was how instantly recognizable these new villains, who have the delightfully tongue-in-cheek name of “The Bastards of Evil,” are. I’ll admit, when they were first introduced, I was annoyed at how easy it was to identify which villains were the parents of the members of the Bastards, but it becomes quickly apparent that McKeever never had any intention of keeping this a secret even comes out and directly says who a few of the parents are.
The story does an admirable job of making each of the Young Allies likeable, even Nomad who I truly despised in her role as Bucky in the Heroes Reborn Captain America book. That’s a testament to the handling of these characters, even if Nomad and Araña have occasionally similar voices. I do have to say that I have little interest in the new hero Toro, but he’s also not unlikeable and could become a much better character with some more screen time. It’s only natural that he would be less developed as he doesn’t have the established history the other characters do.
What’s most refreshing, surprisingly, is the story. It isn’t dumbed down for a teenage audience. It seems like a fairly basic story at first but one that takes an unexpectedly mature turn at the end. I, for one, hope this sticks and makes a lasting impression on the book and isn’t used as just a shocking cliffhanger. It could really anchor the book and make for some interesting stories. It certainly helped to endear me to the new character Warhead more than I ever thought I would. So far, he seems to be the most interesting of Bastards, so hopefully he’ll get some more time to shine.
For me, the biggest downside of the issue was the art by David Baldeón. He comes across like a less-talented David Lafuente, a problem that is only highlighted by Lafuente-drawn cover to the comic. Baldeón isn’t bad per se, but it just feels obvious that he was being pushed as a substitute for Lafuente in this issue. The art is occasionally muddy and sometimes just unappealing but ultimately doesn’t hinder the story. I hope to see Baldeón come more into his own as the series progresses and don’t necessarily want him off the book.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It drew me in enough to continue checking it out, at least for the next few issues. There is potential for a truly fun book here and I hope to see that potential reached. Sean McKeever has been hit-or-miss recently, but he has some good material to work with here and I’d like to be able to classify it as a hit.
Overall: 7.8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment