About Heroes

Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Stefano Caselli

The initiative is starting, and you're coming along for the ride. If you are a young powered person, you must register and train. If you fail your training, you will be washed out, kaput, and disabled of your power. The story starts out introducing our new main characters, young heroes with powers who have registered. So basically, this book is starting off fresh. There are a few familiar faces here and there, but mostly new ones. A kid who flies on clouds, a super-athlete, a emo-kid who transforms into your fears, and a lizard girl. Some of these kids are naiive, others brash and irrational. The emo kid is definately an charicature, so far anyway. We get a glimpse of the program, recruiting, power analysis, and some training. Slott pulls no punches in re-iterating Marvel's new policy that young heroes don't have what it takes. That they are immature, and irrational. One of the more interesting characters in the issue is hurt by another youngster, telling the reader that no one is safe. Since we're starting off with a fresh cast, anything can happen, and it adds something to the title that may have been missing if this series starred the New Avengers or other better known heroes. Slott writes some good dialougue, the kids feel young, but in other places feels forced, the emo kid especially. This is a good starter issue, and worth a try, but the next two issues will be the ones where it has to stand on it's own feet and not the Civil War fallout's.

Cladio Casselli does the art here, and he fits the book to a T. His art is young, fresh, and funky. It shows some manga influences in the eyes and young faces, but his panels feel like classic comic book art. The adults look like adults, different from the kids in their faces and musculature, like they should be. If anything is going to turn me off of this book, it's not going to be the art. C+