By Jennifer Muro & Thomas Krajewski, illustrated by Gretel Lusky (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9657-5 (TPB/Digital edition)
In recent years DC opened up its interlinked superhero multiverse to generate Original Graphic Novels featuring its stars and new characters in stand-alone(ish) adventures for the demographic clumsily dubbed Young Adult.
They’ve been especially scrupulous producing material catering to girls and other previously neglected comics minorities, and to date results have been rather hit or miss. However, when they’re good, they are very good indeed. One such triumph is Primer, which taps into the communal history and mystique of the DCU to introduce a sparkling new character who encapsulates every aspect of youthful rebellion channelled into doing good in the traditional cape and cowl manner…
Written by animation scripters Jennifer Muro (Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina; Spider-Man; Star Wars: Forces of Destiny; Justice League Action; Lego DC Super Hero Girls) & Thomas Krajewski (Buddy Thunderstruck; Fairly OddParents; Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?; Penguins of Madagascar; Looney Tunes; Iron Man; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) this origin adventure crackles with pace and thrills whilst basking in superbly effective dialogue and sharp one-liners.
Making the pictures sparkle and shine is 2-D visual developer, animation/games character designer and jobbing illustrator Gretel Lusky. Primer is her first comics project and augurs a long and fruitful career ahead as the artist seems able to effortlessly mix drama, pathos, spectacular action and sheer glee for maximum impact.
Lettered throughout by Wes Abbott, the wonderment first unfolds in ‘Primary Colors’ as a crashing airliner is plucked from the sky over Washington DC. Suddenly, everyone is saved by what appears to be a paint-spattered, super-powered thirteen year old girl…
Flashing back three weeks, we meet troubled Ashley Rayburn, who – after another bout of nightmares about her dad – escapes from the State group home to go tagging walls with her personal brand of street art. The cops who arrest and return her are pretty sympathetic – for cops. They realise it must be tough having a major crook for a father… even if he is currently in jail.
Ashley is basically a good kid acting out, and home supervisor Mrs. Boyd is trying her best to be understanding, but after regular graffiti incidents with cops involved, and being swiftly returned by five sets of prospective foster parents, the child is becoming a real problem with diminishing chances of a normal life…
If Ash doesn’t gel with latest prospects Mr & Mrs Nolan, she might be stuck in the system for her entire teen years. Thankfully, these adults are pretty cool. Kitch is a laid back art teacher with a wicked sense of fun/mischief, whilst his partner Yuka is a brilliant scientist: a geneticist who’s as obsessed with football as Ashley is.
Within a week, they’re all happily settling in together …so that’s when things start going wrong after the kid inadvertently overhears her new mom fretting about having made a mistake that will ruin their lives…
When there’s an accident in the kitchen, Ash overreacts and relapses into old behaviours: running away to paint walls again. This time, Kitch follows and they bond over her unleashed creativity. Soon he’s giving her art lessons and inviting her to share his studio. The first class is how to use brushes and canvas like she uses spray cans and other people’s walls…
Everything seems cool at home too now, but they don’t know what Yuka has done and can’t imagine how their lives are going to change…
Answers come as Ashley starts Middle School in ‘No Paint, No Gain’, but her resolution to make no new enemies only lasts until she stops bullies picking on a little kid. At least Luke – who’s being harassed for being small and a future star hairstylist – is now her ally against the rest of the jocks and jerks…
What Yuka’s actually fretting over is revealed as her employers Zecromax Labs are occupied by a client – the US Army in the forms of Major General Temple and his extremely menacing assistant Cal Strack. The science facility had been undertaking Project Warpaint for them, before Dr. Nolan secretly destroyed all the files and removed the only samples of their experiments.
These are gel solutions enhanced with the DNA of superheroes and villains. They look like body paints and can temporarily endow specific powers – 33 different ones – in whoever absorbs them through skin contact.
By the time the warmongers come to claim them, Yuka has acted for the good of humanity and – she thought – completely covered her tracks…
Sadly, she’s new to parenting and doesn’t realise that acting suspicious and conspicuously hiding a flashy briefcase is the best way to get a teenager about to celebrate a birthday to poke around where she shouldn’t. Before long, Ash and Luke have uncovered the paint tubes and are playing with borrowed superpowers…
From there on, things get exponentially complicated pretty quickly, as the military mavericks hunt their missing miracle weapon, even as Ashley’s real dad reaches out from the maximum security penitentiary he’s locked in to play his old mind games and remind her that deep down she’s just like he is. The pressured girl reacts by creating her own new alter ego and fighting super-criminals (albeit not particularly effective ones) on the streets of DC in ‘Red, White, and Bruised’.
Restricting the personal crusade of “Primer” because she’s afraid of being caught by Yuka, Ashley has no idea Temple and Strack are hunting the mystery thieves of Project Warpaint, and already on the Nolan’s trail, though the Major General has no idea that his deputy – and personal guinea pig – has his own ambitions involving the superpower supply…
The flashback reaches real time as Ashley finally rejects her dad’s mind games to save the falling plane and go public. Unfortunately, her televised debut enables a lot of people to recognise her and leads to the Nolans’ abduction by Strack and a gaudy gladiatorial clash as the power-crazed maniac attempts to capture all the paints and discovers, to his shock, Primer’s ‘True Colors’…
Even with the drama satisfactorily concluded, there’s an added inducement: an introductory section from Grace Ellis & Brittney Williams’ DC OGN Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge offering a light and airy sneak peek at the formative years of the ace reporter and another splendidly welcome tale aimed at inspiring younger female readers.
A fabulously gripping tale about origins, exploring the process of finding yourself and being your best, smartly cloaked in the bombastic trappings of costumed heroics, and the search for belonging and taking control of your life, Primer is a compelling romp to warm the heart, stir the pulse and light up your life. Sequel ASAP and series soon, Please!
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