Project Superpowers Hero Killers #1 Featured Image Reviews 

“Project Superpowers: Hero Killers” #1

By | May 5th, 2017
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Ryan Browne and Pete Woods are making sure that Tim has a really bad day. The terrible, horrible, no-good kind of day. His boss is an asshole — a hard-drinking, prostitute-ordering, credit-stealing asshole — so when his boss goes and throws up all over him, Tim has a bit of an overreaction. See, his boss is also the superhero Black Terror, meaning Tim is a sidekick. And in “Project Superpowers: Hero Killers” #1, a disgruntled sidekick’s overreaction is a hell of a thing.

Cover by Pete Woods
Written by Ryan Browne
Illustrated by Pete Woods
Lettered by Crank!

Welcome to Libertyville U.S.A.! Home of too damn many superheroes! Watch out, crime, here comes Captain Battle Jr.! And Sparky! And Tim! Yeah, you know…Tim! What? You’ve never heard of them? Huh. Well, it’s hard to be a sidekick when there is a city full of capes running around stopping every misdemeanor with a spandex wrapped flourish. Now watch as things get weird when three lad companions (totally not weird) try to get to the criminals before their bosses do! From the insanity-riddled minds of Ryan Browne (God Hates Astronauts) and Pete Woods (Robin, Deadpool). Prepare to feel the wrath of Tim!

Well, we all knew it was only a matter of time before Ryan Browne caught the capes and cowls crowd in a lethal spandex wedgie. “God Hates Astronauts” served up sci-fi on a cheeseburger eating platter and he’s sharing the workload with Charles Soule of peering behind that bearded facade of high, inter-dimensional fantasy in “Curse Words.” So, it should come to no surprise to anyone, anywhere that Libertyville, U.S.A is the type of city where all the heroes are for hire, where busting crime means eating steak for dinner, and not busting crime means bussing tables or selling used cars.

Pete Woods brings a sheen of superheroic classicism to “Project Superpowers: Hero Killers” #1 and sets the scene of a severely overcrowded workforce with an early double-page splash of roughly two dozen crimebusters pouncing on a small gang of old-timey robot bootleggers. Woods is clearly having a blast with the bombastic introduction – everyone involved has a distinct costume design and they’re all entering the fray with varying methods of attack. He doesn’t skimp on the little details either, as one hero can be seen clearly face-palming another just to get a little bit ahead in the pecking order.

As the scene plays out, Browne and Woods make sure that nobody gets more than a fleeting moment’s glory before it’s stolen by another of their costumed brethren. Woods’s clean lines keep the action clear, as the herd races to claim the spoils that will come as a reward. Browne’s dialogue informs us one hero needs it because he’s late on car payments, while Black Terror’s expecting a hefty payday to bring a new pool table back to his hideout. It’s quite the efficient sequence. We’re given the heavy hitters of this world, a few background details, and a couple of laughs on the side. All this, while the creators make sure we understand that heroism does not equate to altruism in this land.

But this effective setup would all be for not if “Project Superpowers: Hero Killers” #1 didn’t follow through with that deliberately off-kilter sensibility for which Ryan Browne is known. As the dust settles on the melee, Tim surveys the reeling mess and pipes up, “I, uh, I just wanted to point out that these robots weren’t criminals. Prohibition ended seventy years ago or something.”

“Tim is right. There are empty booze bottles everywhere,” chimes another sidekick.

“And I found a stack of receipts. Those robots were buying booze and putting it in barrels,” adds a third. “It’s like it was all pretend or something.”

And with that truth out in the open, the swarm disappears faster than a green leotard and gold-cuffed hero can shout, “Everyone get the hell out here and nobody say nothing to nobody.”

Browne closes the scene with harsh condescension and derision leveled at the sidekicks by each of their mentors. Woods frames three interactions in identical panels placed one beside the other beside the other. The equal weighting makes sure we understand that all three of these kids are in the same boat when it comes to some form of psychological mistreatment by their supposed companions. At this point, if your foreshadowing sense is tingling, you’ll remember the book is entitled – spoiler alert – “Project Superpower: Hero Killers”.

Continued below

So, the comedy here comes with a bit of a dark side. But for any fan of Browne, it should be no surprise that the jokes come fast, furious, from out of left field, and from the desk of a fictitious editor. What might land as a pleasant surprise, though, is just how seamlessly Woods dives into the comically-specific sound effects game that Browne has mastered – uppercuts land with a “Justice Punch!”, bodies contort in “Vehicular Manslaughter!” as they bounce of the bumper of a speeding car, and “Collateral Damage!” is the sound of an eyewitness being disintegrated by a death ray. Sound effects aside, Woods art is fantastic. It’s kinetic and vibrant. Characters bound from one page to another. And when characters emote, it’s with an over earnestness that lets the comedic beats land like hammers.

“Project Superpowers: Hero Killers” #1 is full of four-color silliness: domino masks, death rays, and evil science submarines. And it’s got one hell of a mean streak: mentors projectile vomiting on proteges, reckless child endangerment, and cold-blooded murder. In other words, it sounds like a Ryan Browne comic. And Pete Woods must be carrying around the same kind of crazy, because these two jive together wonderfully. Tim might be having a bad day. But the rest of us? We’re off to a great start.

Final Verdict: 8.5 – Any comic that shows a drunken superhero slipping on his own action figure and concussing himself on a coffee table gets an 8.5. That’s just a fact.


Kent Falkenberg

By day, a mild mannered technical writer in Canada. By night, a milder-mannered husband and father of two. By later that night, asleep - because all that's exhausting - dreaming of a comic stack I should have read and the hockey game I shouldn't have watched.

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