Author: Caio Oliveira
Publisher: Magnetic Press
Rating: Worthy!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
Created, written, and illustrated by Caio Oliveira
Coloring by Lucas Marangon
Cover by Glen Fabry
Design by Deron Bennett
Editing & Lettering by Langston Treehorn
Possible erratum:
On page 16, panel one, was a comment about Hernandez, who had been on trial and we're told: "…the court was complacent with him." which I think is wrong. I think the word they needed here was "lenient", but maybe I'm missing something.
This graphic novel is one I could hardly avoid given that its subject matter is a psychotherapist who treats super heroes. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s a pity we couldn't have use more well-known angst-ridden super heroes here, like Spider-Man and Batman, but (curse those copyright laws!), the writer had to create his own of course, which is fine.
So we have Lester, a young teen who is supposedly the most powerful being in the universe, which is a bit scary to say the least. I guess his better-known equivalent would be Super Boy, although Lester isn't really a boy. Then we have Javier Hernandez, the world's smartest and richest man who wants to be a super hero, too (he's the Tony Stark stand-in). There's also Le Chat Noir, an angry man if there ever was one ( I guess his equivalent would be Batman), who's advised that he really should get himself an appointment with Dr Eugene Goodman. The good doctor treats super heroes, and meets his patients wearing a complete head-mask that reflects the patient's image back at them. Shades of Rorschach! Wolf-Spider (the Spider-man equivalent?) hands Le Chat Noir a card directing him to seek out Dr Goodman if he feels he needs help.
Goodman spends his whole day patiently sitting and listening to the woes of heroes, and the heroes and the woes are hilarious. But this isn’t just a parody. Indeed, it’s not a parody at all, although sometimes it does taste like one. There's a hidden agenda here which isn't revealed until the last few pages, and it’s a good one.
Moving along, we find that in-between fighting invading aliens, Lester is in love, but he's also inexperienced, and he has some serious issues. He's almost thirty but looks and acts like someone half that age because of his slow maturation process. His motto is "with great power come great expectations" (sic), which I thought was hilarious. His dad is Richard Reeves, aka The Savior, and his mom is Daphne Williams, aka Venus. Venus was a Xena or a Red Sonia, or a Lady Sif kind of a character, whereas the savior was another Superman-style hero, and Lester, who looks like a skinny teen, and not at all like your typical super hero, is lonely and troubled. But Dr Goodman has a solution. There's a neat twist at the end which I had to think about for a second, but then I got it. Yeah, I'm slow like that, but it was worth the wait.
This graphic novel is highly recommended. It was beautifully illustrated and (for the most part) very well written. I loved the inventiveness and the tongue-in-cheek humor, and I recommend this graphic novel.
