(Uncorrected Proof Copy)
By Paul Pope (First Second)
ISBN: 978-1-59643-145-4
Paul Pope is undoubtedly one of the most creative and visually engaging creators working in comics these days. Since his debut in 1993 he has stunningly combined elements of European and Japanese styles with classical American themes to produce tales of science fiction, fantasy, crime, comedy, romance, adventure and even superheroics, generally for mature audiences.
If you’re not a fan yet, check out Sin Titulo, Batman: Year 100, Heavy Liquid, 100%, One Trick Ripoff and more…
This latest venture, however, is aimed a general readership – Hey, Kids, This Means You! – and introduces a world very similar to our own but with one big, big difference…
Arcopolis City would be the perfect place to bring up kids but for one thing. Ghastly devils roam at night, stealing children. Even the days are increasingly fraught as a seemingly endless procession of monstrous beasts incessantly carves a swathe of mindless destruction through the bright, breezy thoroughfares…
Of course the valiant sentinels of the Fighting 145th do their very best to contain the daily onslaughts, but it is to jet-packed, ray-gun-wielding science hero Haggard West that the harried citizens look to end the crisis. Those heartfelt hopes are cruelly dashed, however, when hooded horror Sadisto lays a crafty trap and blasts the magnificent rocket-man out of the sky…
His daughter and apprentice Aurora is shattered as she watches her dad vanish in a blast of blazing plasma…
Entire universes away, a shining citadel of warrior deities celebrates a very special event as the greatest pantheon of dutiful cosmic champions in the universe revels in the brief return of their mightiest hero. The stormy saviour of many worlds is back to see his son, who has reached a very special age…
The Boy is not ready for his Turning Day. Even if every child born here is invariably sent into the cosmos on their 13th birthday to save some lesser race from imminent peril on the venerable quest known as “a Rambleâ€, he knows he isn’t strong enough yet. After all, many of his childhood comrades have never returned…
As usual, though, his puissant father knows best and the anxious lad (armed with a very special cloak, battle grieves, the Encyclopedia Monstrosity, keys to an apartment, a map, a magic credit card and a dozen totem tee-shirts) is booted out of the veritable Valhalla of the Starry Lofts and dumped on a mountaintop overlooking a seemingly continent-sized city …just as a homogonous Humbaba rampages through Arcopolis eating cars and crushing tanks…
Before hurtling off to another appointment with destiny, the lad’s proud father casually reminds his spooked scion that if his “Battling Boy†cannot end the plague of monsters on this world, humanity is finished here…
Even as Aurora West begins to unlock the secrets of her father’s legacy and keenly embrace her own dreamed of destiny, the reluctant young demi-god makes his way to the epicentre of chaos and engages the ferocious furious Humbaba.
Things do not go according to plan…
Wry, spectacular and astonishingly engaging, this is a supremely entertaining, beautifully rendered yarn with plenty of fast-paced action, judicious suspense, likable heroes and a gloriously arch villain in the Machiavellian Sadisto, whose subtle scams and unlikely alliances stretch far beyond this blockbusting premiere epic.
This is an ideal comic book for older kids, and reads even better if you’re their adult keeper or guardian. Don’t miss out on the start of something very special…
© 2013 by Paul Pope. All rights reserved.
Battling Boy will be published on October 8th 2013.