kids are not all right -- but is the series?
Artists: Yvel Guichet, Aaron Sowd, Mark Propst, Norm Rapmond
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Bob Schwager
Published by DC Comics, January-June 2000
by Gregory Dickens
just don't get it," teenage Joel Weinberg thinks as he drives his
family's Winnebago from the pursuing "cops, child protective services,
the military, the D.E.O, and a handful of supervillains." Joel's fuming
at the perception that kids have it easy and don't stress over "the
hypocrisy of the system or mortality or existential crises."
just lost his parents to a car wreck and decides to pile up his super-powered
siblings and baby sitter into the RV, head to Metropolis and ask Superman
to ... well, that's a little vague. Just what are they hoping Superman
can do? Joel makes no bones about his hopes. A full-on comic fanboy,
he recognizes that the death of parents is, in many comics, the start
of an origin with a capital "O," the chain of events leading up to
a super hero career.
sister Aviva wonders if Superman can bring their parents back from
the dead. Adopted brother Tyson, "cousin" Cam, and baby sitter Damara
go along to keep the family together. But all follow Joel's focus
to find Superman and accept his rationale that Superman helps people
who need help and surely a family of orphaned powered kids is something
to which he can relate.
going cross-country; RELATIVE HEROES is a road-trip story."
going cross-country; RELATIVE
is a road-trip story. The cops are after them because Tyson is suspected
of murder in a gang-related incident. The protective services want
to keep the kids from hurting themselves, the military is wary of
powered kids tearing through the States, the Department of Extranormal
perations has a vested interest in Cam and the supervillains are D.E.O
operatives. They're really not "supervillains," per se, but since
Joel sees the family as a super hero group, the bad guys by default
become archenemies, nemeses, and the like. Joel's role-playing, reeling
from the shock of being orphaned and, hey, a team leader has to act.
run. And run. And run.
of the quest in RELATIVE
is carried along by some brisk energy throughout. Guichet's pencils
are liquid; postures, expressions, panel architecture and figure positioning
make the story snap. In parallel to the kids' manic pace and chaos,
the art has a zest to it nowhere better exemplified than in their
costumes. Multitextured, multicolored, multipatterned, they grow on
even an old grump like me who usually expects costumes to -- in some
way -- communicate the wearers' power. Still, they don't immediately
scream of an obvious influence, which is always good. The initial
depiction of Superman is well done, using close-ups on his hand, his
logo and a bit of cape, instead of a staid splash page revelation.
hurts RELATIVE HEROES is the writing. This is a good
set-up: a complete coming-of-age story with many a comic tradition
(innocent powered folk running from the well-intentioned, the Feds
and their pasts; a romantic triangle; a virtual WWII bomber crew of
mixed personalities) using different narrators per issue to cement
the characters -- and a few familiar cameos (Superman and Catwoman
in a BATMAN
-- along the way.
works in some clever bits. The black adopted brother Tyson can become
invisible. When he affirms he'd rather be unseen than confront polar-opposite
expectations and then literally fades from view, Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE
to mind. When he faces an emotional obstacle, he doesn't make it go
away. He makes himself go away. Because he can easily isolate
himself, he debates internally why he should make any effort to keep
ties to his families, both biological and secondary and it's a strength
of the comic.
accept a Jewish girl believing in the Easter Bunny, but an eleven-year-old
with political pessimism sounds comical, disrupting the mood of
the other Weinbergs fall short. Aviva looks eight years old, talks
like she's 15 and claims to be 11. Her narration includes the encroaching
doubt of "Santa ... the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and the president
of the United States." I'll accept a Jewish girl believing in the
Easter Bunny, but an eleven-year-old with political pessimism sounds
comical, disrupting the mood of her asides. Aviva encapsulates the
crisis of maturity in a "normal" kid, but her apparent precociousness
undercuts it. She ain't normal, even if you take away her powers and
those of her family. She's philosophizing instead of mourning and
it doesn't make enough of a counter to Joel's emotional block.
Damara is blessed with glamour, so she can sway folks to do her bidding
or fall for her outright. But what little we see of her outside the
glamour is no grotesque deformity (and credit Grayson for that reserve).
But neither is her natural form unseemly. She only has a crisis of
identity because her artificial form is so attractive, but there's
no reason for her to drop the glamour at any time. And if, as it's
implied, she's had the glamour all her life, it's as natural to her
as her biological form. How can she have developed a distinction,
and why would she fret about it?
here is in over-reaching. RELATIVE
is dense because there's a lot attempting to be said. I don't mean
a word-count, but so much earnestness is being doled out in a limited
space, with five kids dealing with loss, powers, yearnings, shadowy
government guys, sibling feuding, sudden maturity, and the aforementioned
'hypocrisy of the system or mortality or existential crises.' There's
also the looming question of just to do with Superman once they find
him and what happens after that. The elements collide, instead of
bolstering each other.
a lot said about the definition and obligations of family. Damara
is betrothed to a Greek god once she reaches age 17, Cam is revealed
as an alien and a brother to the plant he carries around, there's
Tyson of course and Joel, who's ignoring his grandfather's advice
in lieu of Superman's. But the effort to make a statement of belonging
of characters, while making for a great visual, falls into sitcom
exaggeration. Damara's a Wiccan, Tyson's black, Cam's the alien, Aviva's
the brooding preteen and Joel is revealed to be gay because, well,
being a white male would make him the boring one. This makes everyone
into a representative of minority. A character barely registering
as third-tier is introduced and involved in the rescue of Cam for
no other reason than to show Joel is gay. A stock tight-squeeze corridor
scene leads to them dating.
not enough he's an orphaned comic fan with delusions of being a hero,
crossing the country with his family and being chased by all manner
of authority figures in a search of Superman and the delay of his
emotional outburst. No, he's made into a gayorphaned, comic fan with
delusions of heroing crossing the country with his family and being
chased by all manner of authority figures in a search of Superman
and the delay of his emotional outburst.
also an unsettling lack of reaction to death during their journey.
Joel makes Cam fight alone against a Greek deity so he can learn how
to control his powers but a bystander dies. No one reacts to this.
A gang member is killed by the military in front of the Weinbergs.
Again, no reaction. These kids are being surrounded suddenly by death
with nil ramifications. We get their thoughts on death as an existential
puzzle, but not their response to actually seeing it. The kids come
off as callous or oblivious when their thoughts show them to be considerate
and observant. The discrepancy is jarring.
at the end of the series, no one is changed. Secrets are revealed,
sure, but is Aviva more hopeful, Damara more sure of herself, Tyson
more secure of his place? Do we take Joel's burgeoning relationship
for emotional strength? More poignant may have been some change in
his perception of comics or heroes, not an awkward revelation of his
sexuality. They may have a stronger communal bond, but are the individuals
(focused upon intently in each issue) better defined or altered? Like
a recipe's spices, the personas are used to tell a story, and, once
their addition is measured, put back on the shelves.
too much of a good thing. Without the shallow pinups or mindless violence
of many hero comics, the Weinbergs offer some rumination on maturity
and kinship. But six issues compress the ambitious material, confusing
character expression for character development. Ultimately, it's not
much different from Marvel's NEW MUTANTS, which had the luxury of
an open-ended run to give the elements more elbowroom. The Weinbergs
may make for a good family, but not for a satisfying read.
Dickens is a staff writer for PopImage.
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