“Yesterday’s Comic> Chronology Xero #1

“Three fingers means I really hate you.”

Chronology Xero #1

UMC Ediciones (January, 2019)

“The Awakening”

WRITER: Jonh Curcio

ARTIST: Nicolás Giacondino

COLORIST/COVER ART/ASSISTANT EDITOR: Max Cereijido

EDITOR: Jonh Curcio & Luis Sanchez

Alejandro Warner is the new Argentinian superhero Xero, and he’s got a Nazi turned drug dealer named Vicente Lopez, the “Kaiser”, mad at him for disrupting his operations. Before he becomes a bigger thorn, the Kaiser sends hitmen out to stop him. Meanwhile, some Neo-Nazis mess with Alejandro’s friend Victoria, who he’s secretly into until she gets mad for taking too long to help despite telling him she wanted to dance on her own. Alejandro and his friend Damián rescue her, but after the fight she makes Dami take her home. That’s good timing as Alejandro sees a drug deal go down and turns into Xero to stop it, but it turns out to be a trap set by one of the bounty hunters. It’s a stalemate until a ninja-like guy shows up, kills the bounty hunter, and demands the gem that is Xero’s power source, injuring him before the hero can teleport away to call Dami to help him get home.

What they got right: I love Xero’s armor design. We get a sense of his powers: teleportation, energy blasts, telekinesis…all cool powers, and he’s able to hold his own in a fight until someone who knows about his backstory comes calling. We see him fight without and with his powers, showing he can do more than fight with powers, but as a youngster who didn’t get the owner’s manual for his powers he does pretty well. He also has a civilian confidant, which I always like to see.

What they got wrong: Too bad I don’t know the backstory. Did I miss a preview? I didn’t see any gem. Also, please don’t try to give the bounty hunter with a rocket launcher and a kill boner a sympathetic backstory, especially when you name him Megadeath, which even Xero calls out for swiping a heavy metal band’s name. Not giving your hero’s confidant a variation of the kid from The Omen would be nice, too. They call him Dami for short.

What I think overall: Someday I want to be able to check out more of this series, if only to learn where our hero got his powers. (This was my issue with 1990s comics.) There are some interesting ideas I wouldn’t mind seeing explored.