About Heroes

Authors: Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe
Penciller: Phil Briones
Inker: Don Hillsman
Cover: David Mack

After I read her comments on her blog that Tamora Pierce made about Mark Millar and Civil War, I just had to pick up this book. My knowledge of the White Tiger clan is very limited, I know that the original White Tiger (Hector Ayala) was framed for murder and was shot trying to escape. The first female White Tiger was some chick in the 90's Heroes for Hire book. The current incarnation of the character is Hector Ayala's niece and ex FBI agent Angela Del Toro, who inherited her uncle's amulets. Now, Pierce is no stranger to writing stories involving young heroines. She is a fantastic novelist that has written: Alanna: The First Adventure, Wild Magic, and other stories focusing on young women being the protagonist. So how did this mix work for this book?

Pierce was a very odd choice to write an urban superhero that Bendis set up in the pages of Daredevil, since she is a fantasy writer. However, this set up issue feels more like a traditional novice superhero book. Del Toro's career as a crime fighter doesn't begin as some avenging mission, she basically just wants to do the right thing. The story itself moves pretty fast and there is plenty of action to satisfy those adventure seekers. There are also plenty of flashbacks when she was training with Daredevil, for those not familiar with the character's origin. Overall I am very impressed with an author not familiar with writing comics. The character stays true to that of Daredevil and it shows a fairly original origin. Plenty of cameos such as the Man without Fear himself, Black Widow, and Spider-man. The only down side I can see to the actual story is that Del Toro spends too much time preoccupied with all the new changes in her life and it turns out her partner was murdered by one of the criminals (I was really hoping Pierce would stay clear of clichés').

Pierce is not the only name new to me in this book, I have also never heard of Phil Briones. But man he can carry some strong fighting sequences and great character designs. It's a nice mix of film noir and a classic Hong Kong flick! Don Hillsman does a fantastic job not adding any more darkness and grittiness to the book, as a matter of fact he adds to the fluid and organic look that Briones started. I am not a fan of David Mack's art, but that is a really good looking cover, maybe he has yet to surprise me. It's a solid read and it really reminds me alot of Gravity, which is probably why I liked it better than I normally would have. B+ Sign me up for issue 2.