Superfreaks Vol. 1: The New Wave

Superfreaks has been a trade that's been sitting on my Comixology account for a couple of months when I picked it up in a sale. While i had heard some mixed thoughts going around about this (as well as the other Comixology Originals comics), there was something about this cover which just made me want to check it out.

Superfreaks Vol. 1: The New Wave
and it's gorgeous Steven Byrne cover (what
can I say? I love his work).

Well, now I'm a week into the new year and, needing something to read for my comic a day resolution over the first weekend, the cover has once again pushed Superfreaks to the front of the class as I decided to try and get it read over two days and see if it was actually worth my time.

Superfreaks tells the story of a group of Super-sidekicks (although 'sidekicks' might be pushing it. Personal assistants maybe?) in a city where superheroes are gifted their powers by an all powerful VW van (seriously). When the main heroes mysteriously disappear, it falls to these 'sidekicks' to defeat a returning alien threat.

Now, I've probably simplified the plot somewhat, implying it to be an arc of Teen Titans or possibly even Danger Club (which, admittedly, I've never read and am taking the cues of the book from a Longbox Review episode). However, upon reading this series, I found it to be a lot more interesting and including a lot of ideas which did make me have a ponder over.

Of course, I didn't say that I enjoyed reading this comic and that's not because I didn't. In fact, I did enjoy Superfreaks, particularly that Steven Byrne cover (which continues to make me wonder why he isn't on an ongoing somewhere). Also, I thought the art held beneath that awesome cover was also equally gorgeous, with Margaux Saltel's style looking very ethereal or dreamlike while also giving the book this new age/millennial vibe which fitted the characters.

However, it was Elsa Charratier and Pierrick Colinet's story which had me in two minds as it got into a state of ambivalence as I read through it.

It occurs to me that, I'm not sounding very enthused about Superfreaks and nothing could be further from the truth. Admittedly, Superfreaks' story felt very slow to begin with but really picked up steam in my opinion with the start of the third issue and continued on from there to be very enjoyable.

Also, I absolutely loved all the female characters we are introduced to, all of whom felt interesting and full of depth. It sucked that characters like Circuit and Garb didn't see half as entertaining from my perspective but Blue Aura, Red, Savage and Rookie more than made up for that with some immensely complex social dynamics.

And that is where the ambivalence comes into it. What I hadn't mentioned earlier was, during the events of the story, how these characters faced a lot of criticism from almost everyone they met. I found this incredibly heavy going and just a little bit brutal as every adult in this story; from parents to television presenters to even a doctor in the third issue, seemingly berated these kids just for being young. To me, this implies a very cynical world within these pages.

Of course, while I find this incredibly brutal I also find the concepts to be very interesting as well as maybe a little thought provoking. As I read through this, I thought that the reactions towards these sidekicks bordered on emotional abuse, something that made sense when you look closely at some of the characters 'habits'. This realisation I had made me think about my own place in the world as I wondered if I could end up as a parent like the ones in this book, the ones where these abuses primarily extend from.

In the end though, I'm probably overthinking about a good story which, essentially, describes a group of people growing up and coming into their own. If that's the case then Superfreaks was still a very enjoyable read overall that, while I'm not sure I'd revisit if it continued, I'm glad I checked out.