Takio is back! Brian Michael Bendis, author of the Marvel Universe for the past few years, has come back to his all-ages title and brought Michael Avon Oeming back with him! Does it live up to the original Graphic Novel from last year?
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Michael Avon OemingBursting from the pages of last year’s best-selling graphic novel! From the Eisner Award-winning creators of POWERS comes this all-new, all-ages superhero adventure for a new generation! Taki and Olivia are sisters with superpowers! In fact, they are the only ones in the world with superpowers! So obviously, they have to become superheroes! But is the world ready for real-life superheroes? Are the girls ready for the challenge? And will the accident that made them who they are reveal secrets that will change their lives forever? The answers are no, no and yes. This is a brand-new all-ages adventure. A new book for comic-book fans of all ages. A book you can share with your kids or just enjoy for yourself. TAKIO is on the 2012 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens List!
Last year’s Takio was a special book. Not only did it prove how wide Bendis had, a range that was wider than “crime” or “clever superheroes fight and bicker like children” (look it up, that genre is in your local Half Price Books), but it gave the All-Ages Market the shot in the arm from the Big Two it needed. Sure they had a strong market that included books based on popular cartoons like “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” or “Young Justice”, but something that would raise interest in all-ages books on a creative level would be a new property from Marvel or DC. Something that allowed the market to pick a figurehead and realize there were a ton of books they could be reading, like Reed Gunther, for instance. Bendis and Oeming, the creative team behind the popular but decidedly less than kid-friendly “Powers,” were an unlikely team to create the title too, yet just as with the original OGN that introduced the crime fighting sisters it continues to build upon the franchise, with a solid entry point for readers who didn’t have the chance to pick it up the first time around.
If there’s one thing that Bendis knows, it is superhero books. No matter your feelings on his work, he creates accessible, fun-to-read titles that catch fire in the comic atmosphere. It’s even a bit freeing to see Bendis unshackled from the burden of a previously established character or continuity (including Ultimate Peter Parker, Miles Morales, or his Avengers books) and take on a new universe whose rules are only set by his imagination. Taki and Olivia, sisters who gained their powers in the OGN that shared the same name as this book, have the chemistry of a real mixed family, are wonderful, lively creations of Bendis’ that feel as though they’re real people, even if they’re limited to two dimensions.
Taki’s teenage frustration and emerging parental instinct fits well with Olivia’s enthusiasm and frenetic energy that feels like she jumps out of the page; including when you read about her imaginary appearances on talk shows or her desires to continue her superheroing in the most mundane ways, even if it means defending younger students in the school yard from bullies.
Even Taki’s surly frenemy Kelly Sue, whom Takio battled in the OGN, feels as three dimensional as the two leads. Her relationship with her father is a complicated seemingly painful one, which might explain her generally unpleasant demeanor. While Kelly Sue’s father and his cohorts are less developed than she and the two leads are, they still fill the function of the mysterious villains in the story. We’ve seen the evil scientist character many times, but here, Bendis and Oeming give the archetype the subtle complexity that makes him as engrossing as he ever could be.
Oeming, the popular artist who co-created the series with Bendis, proves why he’s the one holding the pencils in this book with his dynamic, action packed storytelling and expressive character designs, along with clever, mood setting backgrounds. A group of panels, which could have simply been talking heads for three pages, instead has the kind of humor it needed to make it one of the most entertaining parts of the book (I for one can’t wait to see Olivia discuss superheroing with James Lipton on Inside the Superhero’s Fortress).
If you’re looking for a book to read with a younger family member or just want entertaining character driven stories with original creations, you’d be hard-pressed to not want to check this book out. Takio scores once again!
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
