Friday, June 17, 2005

This Comic Is Good - Hero Camp #2

I gave Hero Camp #1 a pretty harsh review (as I thought it was nowhere nearly as good as it could have been), so I feel a special need to point out that #2 was a big improvement over #1.

The art by Robbi Rodriguez was one of the highlights of #1, and it continues to be good in this issue. The Mike Allred influence is quite strong in Rodriguez' work.

The conceit behind this series is a strong one - a summer camp for superheroes, and the star of the book is the son of two famous superheroes who doesn't happen to have any superpowers of his own.

The setup paid off well in #2, I believe.

The problem with #1 was that it basically A. Had no plot and B. Was confusing as all heck.

#2 told a clear and concise story, marred only by the fact that I still do not know what the deal is with the villains in this book. Are they, like, really dangerous? Or are they more goofy than dangerous?

It is a big difference when you think a hero is in danger of getting beat up versus being in danger of being KILLED.

I don't know what the situation was in Hero Camp.

But that is a minor detail, and it is safe to say "they are bad guys," so there is something right there.

In any event, the protagonist tries to find some people to hang out with, in a very nice way by writer Greg Thompson to introduce us to various superhero campers.

When no one is available to hang out, Eric (the kid with no powers) goes off to just read. Meanwhile, the superhero girl who has a crush on him asks one of her friends to help keep an eye on Eric.

Her friend's powers?

She can create three homunculi out of her spit that will do her bidding.

She asks the little guys to watch Eric, and the interaction between the homunculi and Eric was good.

He is used to danger (as he is at superhero camp, so he almost dies everyday), so he doesn't like to be babied, but the homunculi banter with him well.

The fight between the homunculi and the bad guys is handled well.

In fact, speaking of the banter, there is a cute ending with the homunculi looking out for Eric's reputation...very nice - touching while being funny AND using established dynamics from earlier in the issue.

The back-up story drawn by Chad Thomas was good, if a bit bland (the various superhero guys talking about what they wanted to be other than superheroes, and Eric talking about his wishes).

The pin-ups were nice, and the "Who's Who" sections continue to be useful.

This was a fun comic with nice art, and it appears promising that we will see some good things in #3, but even if we do not, for this one issue, Hero Camp was a good comic, and I think that bears stating.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Lavina said...

Hey, I think your blog is AWESOME! I like how you write about comics cuz I love comics. I don't read the ones you read, but I like reading the ones in the newspaper everyday.

6/18/2005 11:17:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

No, that movie is Sky High.

I do not BELIEVE that it is tied to any published comic book.

However, after looking at the plot of the movie, it DOES sound similar, doesn't it?

Kid whose parents are super famous superheroes goes to a place with a lot of superpowered peers are at, but he has no powers - for now.

I believe, though, that Greg Thompson has been doing the Hero Camp mini-comic for a long time now.

Here is my review of Hero Camp #1

http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2005/05/three-518-book-that-i-read-so-that-you.html

(it is the third of three reviews)

6/20/2005 01:45:00 AM  
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