Written by Mark Andrew Smith
Illustrated by Armand VillavertWelcome to Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, a top-secret academy for the children of the world’s greatest super villains to learn the trade. Join us as Kid Nefarious, Mummy Girl, Martian Jones, Ghost Girl, and the infamous Skull brothers unearth the School’s and their parents’ hidden past.
All things considered, I’m kind of hard on all-ages comics (as I think I’ve shown recently). While I am all for books aimed at a different and younger audience, I prefer a book that can really appeal to all ages, including my older sensibilities. However, with a cover like Gladstone’s and Image’s recent reputation with #1’s, how could I resist?
Find out after the cut if it was worth the “risk.”
There is one huge problem that the average and generic all-ages comic has: it does not actually appeal to all-ages. Sometimes despite their best intentions, the writers of these titles just don’t convey a voice that can speak to both the younger and older reader. The book is either too child oriented, leaving the adult reader searching for a book that “matters” more, or the book is just too obscure for a younger reader to enjoy, leaving them to feel like there is nothing on the market for their interest.
As of the first issue, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue for Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors.
Gladstone’s premise is rather simple: this is a school in outer space where kids go to learn how to be super villains. The twist? That heroism and villainy, much like wrestling, is all staged. At least, for the most part anyway. But the kids don’t know that. All they want to do is learn how to be the best villain they can, and that’s where our investment will lie. So as we meet various characters like Kid Nefarious (who is adorable, really) and Mummy Girl, this issue sets up our faculty and our kids for their journey from zero to … well, the rhyming opposite of hero.
Of course, here’s the kicker – to be honest, this concept has been done to death. Heroes and villains not actually being heroes and villains? Or even heroes and villains being used to simply analyze generic concepts of good and evil and their eternal battle? Its nothing inherently new at all. We’ve seen it in various titles that take pot shots on every other famous hero and villain out there, and its kind of a boring idea really. The only reason Gladstone’s endures in the end, however, is that it decides to take a different spin on this idea. In every other comic, we are seeing this revelation through our own eyes, as this twist dawns on us and we become aware of the situation we’re given. The difference between the average book and Gladstone’s is that now we’re seeing it strictly through the eyes of children.
These children are unprepared for the truth to the extent that they are training to actually be villains. No one has clued the kids on to the big secret, so as much (or I suppose as little) as the adults know what’s going on, the kids are not aware at all. Kid Nefarious wants to be evil. The fight that ensues during recess only happens because these students all want to be evil. There is no humorous disassociation between the actual concepts of good and evil to them, because for them it’s all about growing up to be evil. While Gladstone’s is certainly set up as an ongoing title, it should be interesting to see what happens when the kids – who are all maybe 11-13 years old – learn that their inspirations and idols are all the exact opposite of who they thought. In fact, the second issue is going to deal with a televised battle between a “hero” and a “villain” that the kids get to watch, so the upcoming story should be interesting given that the audience is in on the grift. It should also be interesting to see what happens when we get a real villain showing up.
Continued belowThe first issue is oversized just a tiny bit, giving a nice introductory bang for your buck at just $2.99. It introduces all our characters, the concept, and even gives the history of Gladstone. Of course, the history of the section of the issue is a tad bit awkward with its placement right at the beginning of the issue. It throws the pacing of the issue off a bit so that when the real story begins, its a tad bit jarring. It seems like the kind of thing that would be better off at the end of the issue as a back-up rather than the introduction, because the history of the school is secondary to the events that happen in it. Nothing is effectively enhanced by the knowledge, because while reading the issue all you want to see is the kids and their dreams of unicorns and flowers (which is absolutely hilarious, by the way). Once you get past the history and get into the story – which is mainly an introduction of the cast – the pace picks up and the book becomes decidedly more enjoyable
Ultimately, Gladstone’s works because its cast is great. Mark Andrew Smith has assembled quite a team with his young group, consisting of Kid Nefarious, Mummy Girl, Martian Jones, Ghost Girl, and the Skull brothers. The kids are very much set up for younger readers, with the Skull brothers having their obvious little quirk, but Smith doesn’t write them as if he is specifically writing for kids. It seems he’s really trying to just write a good “young hero” book akin to Runaways, and the fact that this is decidedly more all-ages is just a happy accident. If anything, the first issue is very reminiscent of another hit Image title, Invincible, back when it first began. While Invincible was the birth of a great hero as well as a satire, Gladstone’s too offers up that slight satire element as the kids try and behave like adults do, just as the average kid does take after the average adult. Considering that this takes place in a world where anything is possible, having powerful kids like this attempting to emulate their idols has much more interesting consequences, and Smith’s handling of this in a way that’s both accessible for kids and adults plays out well.
On top of that, Armand Villavert’s art for the title is immediately grabbing. With great coloring by Carlos Carrasco, the visual portion of the book is VERY reminiscent of Mike Oeming and Victor Santos, and the recognizable nature of the art makes it that much more affable. Villavert’s costume designs for the characters is particularly great, with Kid Nefarious’ cape-scarf being rather awesome. You know.. for a scarf. It’s nice to see a title filled with supervillains that aren’t trying to be subtly recognizable characters. While there is a brief Batman-esque cameo (I assume it’s Batman lying in the rubble), the characters all are decidedly original, which is great. It would have been easy to visually base any character off of someone more famous, but in creating completely original characters that exist within their own universe and not a shared one, Villavert and Smith have truly put out a nice comic for younger readers to grab and grow with, right from the beginning. It’s one thing to just buy a book with Batman in it because you know who Batman is; it’s a completely different (and better) thing to buy a book starring Kid Nefarious and being able to watch that character’s journey. The longer you get to stay with a character, the more you get to connect with a title – and in an age where titles sometimes live or die based on pre-orders, connecting is the name of the game.
Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors is a very nice start for a new title. I’m often times much harsher to all-ages titles, but Smith managed to get the tone of the book to that point where it doesn’t feel like a title attempting to talk down to it’s audience. Instead, this really is an all-ages comic book, in the literal sense. While there are some small structural issues that will assumedly be gone past be the first issues, I’d say that enrolling in the curriculum won’t be a bad idea. There are a lot of dark comics out there right now, dealing with heavy adult-oriented themes. It’s about time we were given a solid comic that’s much brighter in tone.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
