Today’s Comic> Love & Capes: Ever After #5

Love & Capes: Ever After #5

FINAL ISSUE but there better be an ongoing soon or IDW has failed us! Come on, guys, you have my top 3 fictions and then you brought out the Rocketeer. I know you want my money.

IDW Publishing (June 2011)

Charlotte graduates from school in Paris and has a future to look forward to. However, Windstar is killed in the line of duty. As the heroes confirm his death and arrange his funeral, even at a time of death there is the prospect of new life: someone’s having a baby!

I’m going to bypass the usual format here, mostly because I have nothing but praise for this issue. Death in comics has become a thing to do to get mentioned in USA Today or to deconstruct what it means to be a superhero (although since everyone does the “deconstruction” thing, it’s become the new status quo). It has gotten to the point where not only the regular readers but the characters themselves don’t think twice about it, since they may well come back anyway.

Here things are different. The Liberty League has a set routine to ensure the hero is actually dead and not a duplicate or in a near death state or something. We not only see the hero given a memorial by the heroes but the cover story and funeral for his alter ego. There is an actual morning process, and we even see his protege take her place in the League.

And somewhere within all that this book doesn’t forget that it’s a comedy, and does play with the tropes as much for laughs as it does for story. Plus there’s Charlotte coming home from college in Paris and the announcement of a pregnancy (no, not Charlotte). All of it feels more natural than the more serious superhero comics, where the character dies and the heroes don’t think a lot about it since they’re too busy with the next mini or major event storyline. In other words, this romantic comedy about superheroes and the people who love them does a better job with this trope than the serious superhero comics that are all about their adventures. Something to think about.

Recommendation: I rarely use “must have” outside of a certain fanbase, but for anybody who not only reads superhero comics but WRITES them, this is absolutely a must-have comic to own, although I also recommend the earlier issues to learn more about the late hero.

While there’s no caption I could come up with for this scene (outside of noting that I teared up a bit the first time I read it, after the rest of the comic) I did want to note my favorite joke in the story.

Unrelated, but if he wasn’t gay, I’d like to see these two date. 🙂

Tomorrow’s Comic> John Byrne’s Next Men #1 (Hundred Penny Press reprint)

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