Saturday, June 5, 2010

Dynamo 5, Volume 1: Post-Nuclear Family

Superhero families have been around for some time, from the days of the Marvel Family to the Fantastic Four. Dynamo 5 tells a different sort of family story, one that involves the several illegitimate children of Captain Dynamo, a Superman analog with a seriously wandering eye. The five adult children in this book are his progeny, and they have inherited his super-abilities, only they each have one instead of the complete set.

Having different backgrounds and different agendas makes for some drama amidst the teamwork. The team is led by Maddie Wagner, the Captain's widow who, like Lois Lane was a reporter, but she was also secretly a double agent as well. Wagner has her own reasons for joining these heroes together, and she is responsible for giving them all powers by exposing them to the same radioactive substance that empowered her late husband. The other team members are: Hector Chang who has vision powers, Olivia Lewis who can fly, Spencer Bridges who is a shape-shifter, Bridget Flynn who is super-strong, and Gage Reinhart who has telepathy. Together they tackle crime and fight super-powered threats.

In many ways, the narrative is a typical superhero story. Still, reviewers who read comic books like John Kilgallon and Eric Rupe report the story is well done and better than other offerings from the bigger publishers. The dialogue and relationships are well written, as are the plots which contain a few unexpected twists.

This volume originally appeared as seven individual issues published by Image Comics. The series continued until issue 25, which appeared in October 2009, and has been on hiatus since. For those interested in more information, news, and work from the writer and artist, Jay Faerber writes a blog, as does Mahmud A. Asrar. Additionally, there is the official site for the series.

A preview of the first issue is available here.

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