Another of my Kickstarter orders came through recently and so I’d figure I should talk about it. I’d almost forgotten about this one but was reminded when I got a Kickstarter message saying the comics would be shipping out soon. I was pretty psyched when I backed it, but upon reading it, I’m a bit less psyched. But I’m not disappointed and here’s why.

The Kickstarter description has this interesting line:

put it in the hands of people who are looking for something different beside the same cookie cutter stories of the typical heroes.

Well, I’m glad they’re sufficiently bold, but that’s not quite what happened here. It reads like an interesting take on a young Spider-Man than a uniquely new take on comics. It’s got the usual comic book tropes of Teenage superhero, difficulty balancing life and superhero responsibilities, nebulous villains and sketchy yet sexy female ninja allies. It’s a mix of Miles Morales with Wu-Tang An American Story with Ghostbusters snark.

Even with a bit more cliches than the creators intended, the story kind of works well. The music production scenes and the way the storylines combine work better than you’d think. A lot of heroes have split lives that later merge or collide, that is an inevitable consequence of the hero lifestyle. It’s a cliche but why fight it? I think it’s one of the better cliches in the genre.

Is the art amazing? Not really, but it does improve between issue 1 and 3 as the creators have panned out their blocking arrangements and overall style. It’s not polished like Saga or as digitally impressive as EXO or Iyanu, but for a small team, they did alright.

Two of the side characters in the comic are actual singers! This guy Kravitz is an award-winning R&B singer and Jaquees is backup on this song. The main character Chaz aka The View is a production assistant and it works well with the story. Sure it ain’t rocket science but kids do rocket science too, you know? So seeing a teen make hit songs and fight demons is a way new take on the Peter Parker style of hero.