More NYX

The second issue of NYX — the new entry of teen mutants in the Marvel Universe. In this second issue:

Kiden, Tatiana, Bobby Soul, and Lil’ Bro (our young heroes) have never had an easy life, but when someone kidnaps their would-be mentor — the only person who ever lifted a finger on their behalf — for this is when the NYX kids learn what they’re really made of. Will they stand together…or fall apart?

Well, that’s the way the Marvel catalog describes it. for me, it is a different kind of comic, for as a reader of the four-color literary periodicals for the past 45 years or so, I am used to people in gaudily-colored spandex kicking the crap out of each other for little if any reason.

This comic is vastly different than most main-stream hero comics that I have ever read. It is not so much about heroes in costumes (in fact, no one appears in costumes, and really, no one refers to anyone by wicked-cool handles, but their actual names). No, here the story seems to be an actual story, that revolves around characters and their motivations.

(This is not to say that all comics are cheap, badly-written stories centered around violent content, I’m just playing to type here. Actually there are quite a few well-written comics that feature real characters, honest-to-Homer stories, and meaty content. It is just that I’m often surprised when I find such in mainstream comics from one of the major publishers int he field.)

Anyway, for what it is worth, Marjorie Liu has delivered the second chapter in what can only be described as an interesting, off-beat story that will have people sitting up and taking notice of her, and that sort of writing is always good, no matter the medium.

The Perfessor