It’s been a whole year since the alien invasion, and there’s a brave new world to explore. Your Major Spoilers review of The SuperFogeys #10 from Th3rd World Studios awaits!

THE SUPERFOGEYS #10

Writer: Brock Heasly
Artist; Brock Heasly
Colorist: Brock Heasly
Publisher: Michael DeVito
Publisher: Groupname Comics
Cover Price: 99 Cents
Release Date: April 22, 2020

Previously in The SuperFogeys: It’s been one year since the tragic events of last issue. New looks, a new status quo, and new villains kick off a whole new era for the Fogeys.

ONE YEAR LATER

We pick up some months after the alien invasion, and find that things are not going well for the Society of Heroes. Zurida has succesfully taken over most of the United States, save for California which (barely) remains independent, thanks to the efforts of Spy Gal, Soviet Sam and company. Captain Spectacular, however, has been missing in action, tortured daily by Doctor Rocket, while Starmaiden is now co-queen of the world with the alien empress. It’s an ugly world, made even uglier when Swifty pops up, having used his super-speed to time-travel forward, discovering that he world has gone to hell. He then gets popped across the dimensional barrier to Earth-Avalon, a parallel world where things went… a little different. Swifty is stunned to find that Captain Spectacular’s sidekick Jerry who wrecked everything, horrified to find that his world is known as “Earth-Abbadon” by the natives there and gobsmacked when it is revealed that the major deciding factor of making this a better reality is, in fact, the presence of Money Man, who died on his world. Swifty makes it home int time to join with his friend in the Society to enact a desperate plan… with a last-second arrival of the most unexpected help of all!

“IT SUCKS HERE! EVERYTHING WENT TO HELL WITHOUT ME!”

First and foremost, as a nerd of some note, I want to say that the continuity here is incredibly well-constructed and leans (but doesn’t rely entirely) on comic book tropes large and small. For a book that seemed like just an extended joke about “old guys in tights”, we’ve put together a complex and interesting story that draws me in from the very first pages. I’m a sucker for the “terrible crapsack future” and Heasly delivers on that with the complex story and especially the art. I am most enamored of the reveal that the three-fingered design that everyone in the book has is actually one of the differences between Earth-Avalon and Earth-Abbadon and the explanation that Jerry’s actions upset a cosmic balance of forces really helps to underline how bad things have gotten. Best of all, the cliffhanger ending is full of both hope (that they might pull this Indy ploy off after all) and abject despair about the arrival of a character whom I’m not gonna spoiler for you.

BOTTOM LINE: A LOT OF BACK STORY DELIVERED WELL

After only a few issues, I’m a real fan of these characters (especially Swifty, who meets his alternate self and has a discussion about how he never should have retired in the first place) and I really appreciate the creativity and care that has gone into this universe. The SuperFogeys #10 is my favorite issue to date, and its synthesis of wild story and subtle art makes for a well-deserved 4 out of 5 stars overall. If you’re the kind of big super-team nerd that I am and you’re not reading SuperFogeys, you’re really missing out.

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