I see the superhero version of Guess Who is out.
Collective Of Heroes Free Comic Sampler 2016
(Free Comic Book Day, 2016)
In case you missed the last one, Collective Of Heroes was a website spotlighting indie webcomics. Many of the comics in the last issue went to full print or otherwise went down, so I won’t link to any of the comics. I have actually heard of at least one of these comics, so that’s cool.
At any rate we have 14 comics to go over. Time is short, but luckily so were the comics last time. Hopefully that continues here.
3 Minute Max
The writer is Bob Forward, whose work I enjoy in kids TV. This is not a comic for kids. The opening teaser tells us that Max can teleport, which is deadly but that’s fine since he can be dead up to three minutes. He also has a ghost girlfriend for a partner and works for the FBI. The story is sadly not done in one and I swear one panel uses a photo of a real car. I can accept photos used for reference, but that requires you to actually draw the car later. Max and his partner try to rescue a kid from a murder/suicide that already claimed the boy’s mom, and then the father gets all weird. I just couldn’t get into it myself. I’m sure it’s a fine concept and I know Forward is a good writer, but preference gets in my way. Art’s okay.
Dynagirl
Not to be confused with Electra Woman’s sidekick. Although, she is a former sidekick who hooked up with a big name hero and got pregnant. Now she’s back from retirement, leading a team of superheroes, and fighting a villain and his elemental monsters. This has humor in the right places and action in others. There’s a caption pointing you to the issue featuring Dynagirl’s first mission when she references it. Dynagirl shows support to one of her younger charges. This looks like a great comic. Too bad it’s not online anymore.
Tales Of The Emerald Yeti
I think he was in the last comic. This issue, set in a world similar to the Bronze Age, has a barely dressed black woman bringing what I’m guessing is the Yeti to some scientist, but when she demand her payment, his zombies convince her to wait. Or tear her apart. The story stops as they surround her. It looks interesting but I’m not sure it’s for me. I do like the simplified, cartoony art style, though.
Giant Girl Adventures
I won’t tell Marvel if you don’t. Wait, you have a story about a woman with size-changing powers and her friend who turns into video game characters…and they’re just the framing device for other heroes’ stories? Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the framing device that bothers me, it’s you made two superheroes I want to see more about. Imagine stopping a bank robbery as Pac-Man. Or Kratos. Robber would soil his underwear. They don’t even show up in this preview. Some time-displaced lady Russian scientist called Crimson Cosmonaut wants to use the powers of the dimension hopping Displace to return to the 1980s and protect the Soviet Union with her future knowledge. At least I think that’s what’s going on. I understand using different fonts to give each character unique “voices” in the captions but the ones chose are not easy to read. Just still with the ones used for regular dialog, and even then Displace’s isn’t that great. Neither is the art. I’m just not invested in this one.
Henchmen For Hire
This is supposed to be a story about three henchmen, but it sounds like they’re trying to save young superhero Tek Support, only to find out his old mentor is actually a robot. As they try to find a way out of the lab, the robot wakes up. It’s not the most riveting scene. I want to be more interested than I am.
The Hero Business
I think I met the creator at a convention once. I don’t have time to check my Interviews From The Con videos. It’s a business that caters to superheroes. I’m not sure what kind of business it is. There’s PR work, logo making, some kid gets superpowers after a crowdfunding campaign, stuff like that. It is a good introduction the main cast via bios and a comic focusing on each member. It looks like a fun comic.
Miss Melee
Our heroine is visiting a fair with her husband and daughter (who don’t know she’s a superhero and her teen daughter is the hero’s biggest fan) when Brazilian ninjas attack. That’s pretty much the story, but it’s really fun so far.
Our Supermom
Another superhero mom. That I think three thus far including Miss Melee and Dynagirl. The former Paragon comes out of retirement (this again?) when her kids develop superpowers. I can understand stopping while pregnant (apparently Marvel can’t) but is this the only story you can tell with a superhero mother? No superhero dads? We actually get three stories. The first one ends on a cliffhanger as her daughter’s sleepover is interrupted by superheroes coming to arrest her for some reason. In the second, we get what we lost when Superman’s son was aged up and seeing her train her son in using her flying powers. In the third and final tale, the Defense Force heroes (one of whom shares the name of an Ultraverse hero…nobody tell Hardcase and I doubt Marvel cares) is attacked by a girl with multiple superpowers who attacks the heroes at a PR stunt for a new roller coaster, going on about the oppressive government or some nonsense, while our heroine puts together another sleepover for her daughter. Or maybe it’s a prequel to the first story. Either way this looks like a good comic.
Phineus: Teen Wizard
Not to be confused with Ferb’s stepbrother. It’s also the first one in black and white past the comic bio and the art is kind of pixelated, like it was drawn at too low a resolution. Geez, I never had that problem. Phineus goes to the basement to get a magic book and comes across a monster that got locked down there…which he learns as soon as he remembers the translation spell. It’s not my kind of comic but it seems to be a nice little urban magic comedy series.
The Specialists
A team of atomic powered Allied heroes go up against a team of occult-powered Nazi villains. Could have been interesting if it wasn’t a TV show in another universe. Too bad. I was getting into it.
Supervillainous
Oh sure, the supervillain gets to be a father. The comedy in this story comes from trying to save his marriage though. This was actually pretty funny, and that’s from the guy who usually doesn’t care about the villains. The Villains Of Valleyview and Evil Con Carne are the only other ones I can think of, and I didn’t even watch them regularly.
The Underdogs
Two guys in a training facility for superpeople (I can’t tell if they’re the good guys or bad guys) deal with an instructor who shoots at them. It’s an interesting action sequence but not very interesting otherwise.
Vanguard
Superhumans in the apocalypse? Well, not the apocalypse exactly as the story takes place a forest where two superhumans poach a wild boar for food and have to fight when they’re caught. It’s not a bad premise and the art’s decent. It’s just not what I’m looking for.
Wonder Weenies
Oh, not this again. It was stupid last year and I hate these characters more this year as they ruin some geek’s Free Comic Book Day completism just to be a-holes. Please don’t show me this again when I eventually get to the next one.
overall
There were some good comics I’d like to check out, some okay comics I’m mildly curious about, some that weren’t for me, and that last crap. Overall it’s a good sampler of indie webcomics, even if most of them aren’t on the web anymore.
BW Media Spotlight 