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A review by nancyotoole
Grace Randolph's Supurbia Vol. 1 by Grace Randolph, Russell Dauterman
3.0
Grace Randolph, the writer and creator of Supurbia, also runs a webseries on youtube called Think About the Ink, and this is where I first found out about Supurbia. I don't read a lot of superhero comics, but the concept caught my attention regardless. Although Supurbia does feature several superheroes characters, the members of the Meta Legion, the main focus here is on the spouses and children of these larger than life figures. At the beginning of the first issue, everyone has gathered together to welcome Eve, who has just married Robbie “The Bulldog” White. Unfortunately, the team's patriarch, Mike White, aka Marine Omega, has fallen ill. No one realizes it, but there's more to his sickness than just old age.
When I first heard the series advertised as “Desperate Housewives with Superheroes” I was somewhat nervous that Supurbia would feature a lot of cattiness and hair pulling between the wives (Confession #1- I have never actually seen Desperate Housewives, but this is how I picture it to be. If I'm wrong, please correct me). Fortunately, the wives (and husband, and children) of the Meta Legion are well fleshed out. I especially enjoyed former superhero Tia Jennings, who has taken a break from fighting crime to me a full time mom until her daughter grows up a little more, but obviously misses her former life. Tthe characters that really grabbed my attention were actually the kids, especially Eli, who's beginning to discover his own superpowers. You'd think in a neighborhood filled with superheroes that this would be an easy transition, but even in this ideal setting, things are complicated.
Supurbia also features a fair amount of deconstructing popular superheroes types, showing the audience the flawed, and sometimes troubling sides of these larger than life figures. It's a fair criticism that this is territory that has already been covered by Watchmen, but it's still interesting to read nevertheless (Confession #2- I haven't read Watchmen yet, but I have seen the movie. Shame on me, I know, but I came into the comic book thing a little late in the game). Also, it's worth noting that if anyone's going to see a superheroes more human flaws, it's going to be their families. These superheroes may be great at taking down evil but that doesn't mean that they're going to be the greatest partners, or parents. Amusingly Supurbia also tackles the running gag about Batman and Robin being gay by feature an obviously Batman inspired superhero who has an affair with his male sidekick.
Admittedly, one issue I do have with the series (both with past and future issues) is that the covers can (but not always!) do the typical “hot woman with cleavage” thing that I'm not hugely found of. Interestingly, on the inside of the comic the objectification goes both ways. The character Helen (also known as Hella) doesn't always wear tons of clothing, but neither does Legion. This seems fair at least. As far as quality of the artwork goes, I found Russell Dauterman's work to be solid, if not really anything to write home about.
As much as I ultimately enjoyed Supurbia, There were admittedly a few things that left me scratching my head. The biggest one would have to be why Bobbie seems to be on the road to being Marine Omega's successor, when we don't really see any signs of leadership (or even maturity) from him at all. Also, I was under the impression that he was actually new the the team, despite being Marine Omega's sidekick (sorry, second-in-command). Why wouldn't the torch be passed along to someone in the team with more experience? I suspect this is something that would have been explained if we had a few more pages to do so. There's certainly a lot going on in these four issues!
Final Thoughts- Despite a few issues with the story, and cover art, I was pretty happy with the first four issues of Supurbia, and would recommend it to someone looking for something that involves interesting characters, and superheroes. I know they're planning on releasing the first four issues as a trade paperback. Since the single issues were kind of hard to find when they were being released, I would suggest going there first for people that want read the beginning of the series.
When I first heard the series advertised as “Desperate Housewives with Superheroes” I was somewhat nervous that Supurbia would feature a lot of cattiness and hair pulling between the wives (Confession #1- I have never actually seen Desperate Housewives, but this is how I picture it to be. If I'm wrong, please correct me). Fortunately, the wives (and husband, and children) of the Meta Legion are well fleshed out. I especially enjoyed former superhero Tia Jennings, who has taken a break from fighting crime to me a full time mom until her daughter grows up a little more, but obviously misses her former life. Tthe characters that really grabbed my attention were actually the kids, especially Eli, who's beginning to discover his own superpowers. You'd think in a neighborhood filled with superheroes that this would be an easy transition, but even in this ideal setting, things are complicated.
Supurbia also features a fair amount of deconstructing popular superheroes types, showing the audience the flawed, and sometimes troubling sides of these larger than life figures. It's a fair criticism that this is territory that has already been covered by Watchmen, but it's still interesting to read nevertheless (Confession #2- I haven't read Watchmen yet, but I have seen the movie. Shame on me, I know, but I came into the comic book thing a little late in the game). Also, it's worth noting that if anyone's going to see a superheroes more human flaws, it's going to be their families. These superheroes may be great at taking down evil but that doesn't mean that they're going to be the greatest partners, or parents. Amusingly Supurbia also tackles the running gag about Batman and Robin being gay by feature an obviously Batman inspired superhero who has an affair with his male sidekick.
Admittedly, one issue I do have with the series (both with past and future issues) is that the covers can (but not always!) do the typical “hot woman with cleavage” thing that I'm not hugely found of. Interestingly, on the inside of the comic the objectification goes both ways. The character Helen (also known as Hella) doesn't always wear tons of clothing, but neither does Legion. This seems fair at least. As far as quality of the artwork goes, I found Russell Dauterman's work to be solid, if not really anything to write home about.
As much as I ultimately enjoyed Supurbia, There were admittedly a few things that left me scratching my head. The biggest one would have to be why Bobbie seems to be on the road to being Marine Omega's successor, when we don't really see any signs of leadership (or even maturity) from him at all. Also, I was under the impression that he was actually new the the team, despite being Marine Omega's sidekick (sorry, second-in-command). Why wouldn't the torch be passed along to someone in the team with more experience? I suspect this is something that would have been explained if we had a few more pages to do so. There's certainly a lot going on in these four issues!
Final Thoughts- Despite a few issues with the story, and cover art, I was pretty happy with the first four issues of Supurbia, and would recommend it to someone looking for something that involves interesting characters, and superheroes. I know they're planning on releasing the first four issues as a trade paperback. Since the single issues were kind of hard to find when they were being released, I would suggest going there first for people that want read the beginning of the series.