The heroes of Project Superpowers are back in action against a mysterious foe who has caused all the aircraft in the world to fall from the skies. Who has that sort of power? Let’s find out in Project Superpowers #2 from Dynamite Entertainment.

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #2

Writer: Rob Williams
Artist: Sergio Davila
Colorist: Felideus
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 5, 2018

Previously in Project Superpowers: Young Imani Cooper is flying to New York to meet her father. She gets caught up in a supernatural catastrophe where all the planes (across the world) lose power. The only thing holding them up is a magical web created by the Green Lama. We meet the rest of the Project Superpowers heroes as they all take part in rescuing people. Imani, on being rescued, cannot resist trying to help, and ultimately she is chosen to become a hero herself.

THE NEW SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN FLAG STEPS UP

Project Superpowers #2 starts out with a page introducing us to an upcoming complication. In a remote part of the South Pacific is a graveyard for decommissioned satellites and other space junk. However, they picked up microscopic stuff out in space, and now there are intelligent creatures there.

Meanwhile, back in the action, Imani realizes she is a hero as she fights the Death-Defying Devil to keep him away from the Green Lama. We learn a little more – that the Flag has chosen Imani just as “They” chose the Death-Defying Devil. (But who is “They?”) Then he slashes her savagely across the chest and strikes out at the Green Lama. Through the ongoing fight, we get a nice reintroduction to the main characters and somewhat of a recap to the story, so if you missed the first issue, you can jump into the story here and not feel a bit lost. The exposition also adds some details we didn’t get previously, so we get to know a bit more about our characters.

The Scarab joins the fight. The Green Lama tells him that he saw the future and they lose, and he disintegrates. The web holding up the planes goes away, and the falling planes all vanish, but Imani and the Devil fall. Imani realizes the Flag can make her fly, and she revels in the sensation until she realizes that she is still bleeding out.

The Devil falls to his death, or not, as he is formed of nano-bots who reform. Samson and Masquerade show up. I do like the reminder that Samson is blind – while he can hit the Devil quite hard, without any noise in response he can’t really tell what the result is, and when the nano-bots vanish, he doesn’t know what happened. I appreciate that he is very capable, but he doesn’t have special abilities that make his blindness irrelevant. Imani’s adrenaline wears off and she collapses, only to be caught by the Black Terror (cue poor reactions from the crowd).

The Scarab picks up over radio that the world is being invaded (remember that first page), and we cut to outer space where the Green Lama comes to. He was teleported out and away from the Earth. Someone – the same someone who has control over the Death-Defying Devil – has brought him here to neutralize him. The magical urn that brought Project Superpowers from the 1940’s to the present was Pandora’s Box, and the being called P:Andora wants it back!

RICHLY EXPRESSIVE

I love the art in Project Superpowers #2. Again, billowing things – the Flag, cloaks, robes, dresses – feature prominently and they’re drawn very well. The facial expressions are terrific, deeply emotional without being over-exaggerated, on not only the heroes, but also the various bystanders. The Death-Defying Devil’s nano-bots are interestingly depicted as well.  P:Andora, and his spaceship, are unearthly and rather terrifying. He has a metal arm, and that and The Scarab’s suit do look metallic.

I also really like the color palettes that are used. The big battle scenes have a rose-like tinge to them, which contrasts starkly with the opening water scene in the South Pacific, and later we have a scene on Easter Island. Those have a lovely blue-green tone to them. Interestingly, outer space also has a blue-green flavor. Throughout all, there are nice bits of brightness and the use of light and shadow is great. It is a beautiful book.

BOTTOM LINE: NOT TOO LATE TO JUMP IN

The characters in Project Superpowers #2 are interesting, and this is looking to be an intriguing adventure. Despite the large cast, their re-introductions are clear. There is still a nice sense of humor in spots, so this is not a dead serious story, despite the fact that it is certainly dramatic.  In particular, I like the set-up of introducing a new, young hero to a group who have worked together for years in the past.

[taq_review]

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