Book Reviews

Grace Randolph’s Supurbia Vol. 4
Grace Randolph, Russell Dauterman
Boom! Studios
Street: 08.12
The concept behind Grace Randolph’s Supurbia is to explore the relationship between superheroes and their supporting cast—the kind of stories that might happen to Alfred Pennyworth or Lois Lane while Batman and Superman are off doing superheroic things.  Randolph does this by focusing the narrative around the lives of the people who lead regular lives while still being married or otherwise involved with a god-like metahuman.  The way Randolph contrasts the normalcy of her main characters’ lives with the often unbelievable exploits of their powerful counterparts makes everyday life seem just as unconventional as fighting shape-shifting robots.  With the fourth volume, however, the storyline involving the heroes has gotten so much bigger and more unwieldy than the “normal” lives of the non-super-powered humans live in—which seems to detract a bit from Supurbia’s initial concept.  Dauterman’s illustrations continue to strike a visual balance between suburbanite neighborhoods to otherworldly dimensions, and his characters are still beautiful.  Considering how the fourth volume concluded, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we started to see the normal characters start adopting superhuman powers, and vice versa. –Alex Springer

The Woods Vol. 1: The Arrow
James Tynion IV &
Michael Dialynas
BOOM! Studios
Street: 09.23
If you’ve ever wondered what the cast of The Breakfast Club would do if their school was suddenly transported to a dimension filled with hostile creatures, you might have landed on something similar to The Woods. Though the premise is engaging enough on its own, it’s Tynion’s exploration of high school politics that sets the story apart. Not only do we have a wily group of outcasts who overcome their social strati to focus on figuring out where they have ended up, but we also have an interesting perspective on the hierarchy that exists among the teachers. The result is a decent mix of Lost and The Faculty, with a dash of Lord of the Flies thrown in for good measure. Dilynas’s illustrations are perfect for the frenetic environment, and each new creature that the heroes encounter is more horrible than the last. Though a few character clichés bubble to the surface throughout the narrative, Tynion gives his main characters enough room to demonstrate the complexity of the modern teenager. –Alex Springer