A Review: SIDEKICK #1

The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of SIDEKICK #1 from Joe’s Comics and Image Comics. The story is by J. Michael Straczynski, art by Tom Mandrake, colors by HiHi and lettering by Troy Peteri.

Things are good for Barry Chase, A.K.A. Flyboy, the sidekick to the Red Cowl. That is until that fateful day where an assassin’s bullet kills the hero of Sol City. Years later, Barry is a shell of himself and a pathetic excuse for a hero. He even goes to the big convention in San Diego in hopes of becoming someone else’s sidekick, and crowd sourcing to raise funds to fight crime. Things are about to get worse for Flyboy…

While the deconstruction of a hero is not new, I don’t remember reading anything like this before. Straczynski (no stranger to writing superheroes) throws just about everything bad that he can think of at our hero. Mandrake’s art is great as always. Between him and HiHi, they do an incredible job of contrasting the bright, glory days of the past with the dark, depressing present the title character now lives. Definitely worth picking up.

SIDEKICK #1 is in stores now or available for ordering at www.Imagecomics.com.