Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Spark, Spider-Man and a nice bowl of dead squirrel


The thing that bugs me most about the way "reluctant" heros are portrayed in comics is that they're reluctant in the same way that Studio 407's Editor-in-Chief, "The Big Pencil," is reluctant to eat roadkill. That is to say, they're not reluctant at all. 

Take Spider-Man. Mind you, I love the web-slinger as much as the next geek, but issue after issue, on page 7 he'll be all, "I'm reluctant! I'm reluctant!" then on page 9, he changes his tune to "Should I wear my red and blue Spidey suit or my black one? Tell me, seriously, because I'm worried the black one make my butt look big."

These guys have all this existential angst and blah, blah, blah, but ultimately, they just luuuuuuuv to slide on that spandex almost as fast as The Big Pencil tucks into a freshly-grilled possum kabob.

That's why I truly dig Studio 407's new graphic novel The Spark. It's the story of this kid Lucas who, thanks to a mysterious phenomenon called The Spark, gets super powers. At this point, he's supposed to join three other Spark-empowered kids to prevent an alien invasion. Unfortunately, he's (you guessed it) reluctant. He's got a busy life, a dysfunctional family to prop-up, a job to keep. Sure, saving the planet seems the obvious choice from an outsider's perspective, but in real life, sometimes personal issues seem far more overwhelming than even the risk of extraterrestrial enslavement.

It features writing from Martin Renard, art from Nahuel Sagarnaga Cozman  -- and an excellent wet t-shirt scene about half way through the book.

Ask for it at your local book store or comic book shop. Click here to check it out. 

If you just can't wait for it to hit the shelves, pre-order at Barnes and Noble here.

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