Danger Club [Shotgun Blurbs]

Danger Club

Published by Image Comics
Creators: Landry Walker & Eric Jones

What It’s About: When Earth’s greatest heroes mysteriously disappear after facing a cosmic threat, their teenage sidekicks are forced to step up and fill the void. Unfortunately, their generation isn’t quite ready to wield the power and shoulder this immense responsibility. Most of the impressionable youngsters are swayed toward a less than altruistic figure and the world degenerates toward an evil theocracy in this disturbing vision that’s like Lord of The Flies meets 1960’s Teen Titans. The small sliver of hope in all the dark dystopian despair is a small band of teen sidekicks who rise up to rebel against the PTB and fulfill their heroic legacies instead of slipping further into this nightmarish reality. Fans of the hyper-violent youth culture of Kick-Ass or the sheer power spectacle of The Authority will be entertained. Fans who appreciate the smarts of Battle Hymn, Automatic Kafka, or No Hero will love the honest raw take on human nature.

Why You Should Buy It: Walker takes the standard genre tropes that have existed for decades and subverts them in sublime fashion, creating startling renditions of familiar archetypes, like Kid Vigilante (genius level hand-to-hand combatant), Apollo (super-powered demigod), and the city of Micro Tokyo (think The Bottle City of Kandor as rendered by Osamu Tezuka). It’s easy to label work as “superhero deconstructionism,” but few works demonstrate in such short order this intensely flawed paradigm. Jones’ lean figures create a moody and atmospheric world that’s both dark and dynamic, comfortable with big bold action or the small personal moments which find the kids struggling to control their own destiny. The one-page retro flashbacks offer a sense of aesthetic nostalgia that creates the most crisp and effective character introductions ever seen. Danger Club is shaping up to be another cult classic in the making.