Review: The Life and Times of Savior 28 #2

He will save everyone of us, even if it kills him

Savior 28 is J.M. DeMatteis’ look at the superhero, who realizes everything isn’t about the fighty fighty and the stabby stabby, but rather an attempt to put an end to the violence and bring the world together with a great big hug.  For the titular character it took a lifetime to discover that which is most needed is a loving heart, and for those left behind it may just take another lifetime to figure out how he came to that conclusion.

McNulty once again spends the issue reflecting on the act of killing his only father figure.  This time, readers get a look at some of the events that lead to Savior 28 taking a different approach on life.  The big trigger event (the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, where Savior 28 was lost in a bottom of a bottle while people died around him) was featured last issue, and this issue feature the hero trying to deal with the initial aftermath.  DeMatteis spends a large portion of the issue showing Savior trying to blow his brains out again and again and again in a fit of depression.  It’s comical in a way, as each gunshot does nothing but leave him looking like Elmer Fudd on the bad end of a Bugs Bunny gag, but is also very tragic as Savior realizes he can’t die – at least by conventional means.

The former sidekick turned assassin also reminds readers that this isn’t the first time Savior 28 lost his marbles, by flashing back to  Savior 28’s involvement  with the events of World War II.  The pure shock and horror at how far humanity will go to hurt one another is spelled out in shocking detail for Savior 28, when he posses as a normal soldier, and ends up being part of the initial force that liberated Buchenwald.  The shock is so traumatic, that Savior spends three years in a mental ward, surrounded by his friends as he sits in a catatonic state, trying to put the pieces back together.

While this section of the issue is extremely wordy, it is just another layer that makes the reader feel for this character and understand the events that shaped his thoughts up to the day he died.  Unfortunately, everyone else doesn’t see it that way, and the world he helped create is totally out of control.  Originally set up to be a Captain America story, this issue pays homage to Superman and the heroes that came after, and once again DeMatteis uses the issue to show how the heroes evolved from the golden to the modern age.

The issue comes to a head after Savior 28 finds the inspiration to stop his suicidal tendencies and spread the good word (Buddha’s not that other guy), when he approaches this universe’s version of the JLAVENGERSECRETSOCIETYOFEVILEGIONOFDOOMEN.  Sadly, they ignore this words and continue The Epic Battle of the Century XXXIX.  All the while McNulty realizes it was a big mistake to pull the trigger and kill his friend.

The Life and Times of Savior 28 is so really different, I think it will turn a lot of people off, and that only reinforces Savior’s plight.  Yes we like our superhero comics where the good guy and the bad guy give the smack down to each other issue after issue, but when the message is really one of peace, and nonviolence, it goes against what readers expect. And as we all know, anything different is shunned.  In this case, I say give the series a chance – it will get you to sit back and ponder the Life and Times of Savior 28, and how only in his death do we think about peace.

Issue #2 is another solid issue, that is brilliantly written to be interpreted on many different levels, and I can’t wait to see how Savior 28 goes from hero to zero as he continues to spread his new ideology to the world.  DeMatteis and Mike Cavallaro deserve another round of applause as this issue earns 4.5 out of 5 Stars.