Just before I went on what I thought would be a restful vacation, I was contacted by one George Morrow and asked to review his self-published graphic novel, Teenaged Defending Squad of America. Well, I’m always up for a good superhero story so I looked over the preview before I started my time off and downloaded it to look at last night. I’m not usually the brutal type (unless I see something I love being treated like dirt by the current “caretakers”) but I will give my honest review.
Teenaged Defending Squad of America follows the adventures of Jack and his friend Lori just as things change in their humble city. A new group of superheroes calling themselves the Teenaged Defending Squad of America (or TDSA for short) begin operating in the area. After seeing them up close, Lori badgers Jack into joining the team, becoming Environment Girl and Panda Lad (he couldn’t convince them to call him Panda MAN). They are soon brought in by the project’s head for BASE, you’re typical secret government organization. However, joining forces with Truck Lad, Vacuum Girl, and Dynamo Boy (not “Dynamo Lad”?) proves to negatively impact their personal lives, even though Jack ends up getting a girlfriend. Also, their new arch enemy, the Forever Man, and his “Team Evil” have a few secrets and have a diabolical plan that will put our heroes and their replacements through the ringer.
Nobody liked that movie anyway.
How does all that come about? I’m not spoiling it here. This isn’t some twenty year old comic or movie here. This is Morrow’s labor of love, and it does show. The focus is on Jack/Panda Lad–our doorway into this world, and Lori/Environment Girl, but the other heroes aren’t just window dressing. Granted, we don’t see their backstories, but there is an opening for a sequel as Forever Man has a connection with BASE that also isn’t revealed here. There’s also some effort on Team Evil. Forever Man and Growing Woman are apparently “an item”, while Psyzor and Human Moth occasionally wrestle with their consciences. There isn’t a lot of fleshing out, but there’s only so much time to tell the story, and it’s really Jack and Lori’s.
There are some negatives I should point out, but all but one is minor. I would have liked a scene where the TDSA sits around talking about why they became superheroes. We get Lori and Jack’s motivation during a debriefing, but not why Lori chose her name. Also, near the end the passage of time is a bit vague so Jack and his girlfriend’s relationship seems to move awfully fast. There’s one page, when Growing Woman is fighting the TDSA where it looks like the pencil lines were left in, unless that’s just supposed to be from the building shaking. None of this interfered with my enjoyment of the book, but they are things to mention and hopefully that sit-down would show up in a sequel. We only really get the character’s alter egos from the cast page on the site. One final note is that Jack drops the “s-bomb” at one point, which is only noteworthy because swearing is rather limited. Frankly, it’s the only one I remember and its absence wouldn’t have been out of place in this story.
I can’t say that Teenaged Defending Squad of America is one of the best superhero comics I’ve read but it doesn’t get all cynical like most of today’s super”hero” comics. It was fun without being comical. It’s not an “all-ages” story. (For example, one scene has a teacher talking about Shakespere and drops a comment about sex in there. I think we had the same high-school English teacher.) On the other hand, it’s not graphically violent. I suppose a marker would easily clean it up for older kids. At any rate, check out the preview I linked to above and give it a look. You can get it through the comic’s website and it’s available in print and for some digital devices. You might find you like it. I did.
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