About Heroes

Author: Steven Seagle
Artist: Becky Cloonan
Colorist: Brian Miller
Cover: Frank Quitely

Back to what I would like to call his roots Seagle is writing another Vertigo monthly title. His work on Sandman Mystery Theater, The Crusades, and House of Secrets made me a huge fan of his Vertigo stuff. I was familiar with Cloonan because of a little book called Demo. Pairing the two of them together was a match made in heaven; they both seem to feed well off each other. Although Cloonan's pencils are not as strong as they were on Demo, they still look better than that cover art by Quitely. When I first looked at the cover I thought it was an ugly chick lying on a heart shaped pillow.

American Virgin is a new ongoing Vertigo monthly about sex, God, and ultimately death. The story follows Adam Chamberlain who is the figurehead for a national chastity movement. He's like a neo-Christian rock star, who has been preaching the word of God for the past year. That word being: Save yourself until you're married! Don't just have sex with random people, but rather save yourself for that "one true intended". Because that is what God wants, He told him so, or so we are let to believe, whether that is true or not, well I guess we'll just have to see. As of right now his character is already a rarity in fiction, let alone comic books, hell its already one extreme away from Preacher and Lucifer. He is a conservative, right-wing Christian who wants to share the word of God with teens and twenty-somethings that are looking for guidance.

Now, by no means does Seagle intend for the readers to agree with him, but you come to respect his views by the end of the issue. But this seems to be a weakness in the book; he is mentioning God at least once a page, so he really doesn't come across as a real person. But that could be the gimmick in this story; that Adam is not the key element here, but rather what he represents. We know he is going to have obstacles to overcome with temptations and his girlfriend Cassandra, whom God told him to be with forever. But do we really want to stick around and read about a guy that is trying to fight off sin and fornication?

A whole lot happens in this first issue, it seems to be going everywhere. We have the introduction of eight major players in the story. But, because of the way that the book reads and the heavy dialogue, none of them seem to come to life. Another problem I found was with the coloring, Miller doesn't seem to know exactly how to color those bold and heavy inks on the characters and just relies on shadows. So far it's enough to get me to read the next couple of issues. It is a very difficult to judge a series by the first issue, but I'm still hoping for a twist in the story. B