Comic Book Reviews 45
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Comic Book Reviews: 45
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In a comics marketplace that has grown comfortable with the tried and tested capes and tights formula, it’s increasingly rare to come across a superhero title that does something (dare we say it?) new. It comes as something as a surprise, therefore, to find Andi Ewington positively belching forth fresh air with 45 (Com.x, £11.99)
Not strictly speaking a graphic novel, 45 is a collection of interviews with super-humans (Super-S, for 45‘s purposes) conducted by an almost-absent protagonist, journalist James Stanley. The birth of his child is creeping closer and, unsure of whether it will be born Super-S, he sets out to discover what it means to live your life as a superman.
Each interview comes with a full-page illustration by a different artist from a line-up that reads like a who’s-who of British comics - Trevor Hairsine, Sean Phillips and Frazer Irving are just a few of the big names lending their pencil to the project. The interviews are by turns funny, thrilling, thoughtful and tragic. The beauty of 45 is that all of them - despite the ‘super’ nature of their subjects - are brimming with humanity.
While these snapshots of supermen would be satisfying on their own, taken together they form an intriguing larger narrative - one that illuminates both a father already in love with his child and shadowy forces at work in the wider world. If you put ‘man’ before ‘super’ there’s a lot to enjoy here.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd March 2010
Mark Johnson
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