From Boom Studios, Grace Randolph, Russell Dauterman

Calm yourself down doubters!  I was shocked when reviews started coming in for the first issue and some people were very very negative.  How could you be so down on this title?  “Oh I’ve seen these characters before.”  Well I got news for you Joseph Campbell, we have all seen every character before.  There are a finite number of character tropes: the patriot, the vigilante, the rogue, the sidekick, the Amazon, the wizard, etc and on.  The talent and the creativity comes in taking these concepts and coming up with new angles and new adventures for them.  That challenge is answered and accomplished by Grace in this series.

The issue is a lot of set up, which is bound to happen in a limited series, but so much has happened.  The heroes, the partners, and the children are all enriched within this issue.  There is a grand bad guy pulling strings behind the scenes.  There are friendships made and teases that bonds will be broken by the end.

Most telling of all is the leap a person has to take from “I want to help” to “I want to help… publicly, in costume, and punch things”.  Eve and Tia have an amazing conversation about this difference.  Eve is a nurse, because she wants to help, and that’s enough for her.  Whether Tia already had some issues, or whether a traumatic event happened to her is unknown, but she does equate helping people with getting to take aggression out on those who are hurting people.

Lots of people have broken apart the concept of super heroes over the last few decades in order to break them down.  Lets see how screwed up these people are, and feel ashamed and embarrassed for them.  Supurbia breaks apart the concept to show multiple reasons and ways people are heroic.  It builds up and expands super heroes, instead of making it a dirty word.