Huck and his mother, Anna, thought they were the only superhumans in the world. Turns out, they were wrong. Your Major Spoilers review of Huck: Big Bad World #1 from Dark Horse Comics awaits!

HUCK: BIG BAD WORLD #1

Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 14, 2025

Previously in Huck: Huck is a young man with autism AND extraordinary powers, who tries to do one good deed every day. But not that a mysterious man has told him that he and his mother aren’t the only super-people out there and there are others in hiding just like them?

There’s no way that he’s not getting involved.

WHERE WE LEFT HIM

This issue begins with a flashback to 1976 and Anna Kozar’s childhood in Ukraine. She and her friends encounter a strange woman in a house that hadn’t existed the day before, after which she could make people do her bidding. She awakens in the modern day, as a visitor arrives at her home… a visitor who knows her secret, and Huck’s. At the same time, her son is hundreds of miles away, saving the crew of a missing sailing vessel (and mooning about his new girlfriend). Things go well in the rescue, but less so in the relationship department, while Mrs. Kozar’s visitor explains that he has encountered a number of super-beings, some of whom have been around longer than Anna herself. And one of them once saved his life, leading him to expend great effort to try and track her down. But, since Huck’s powers allow him to find anyone, Jack Harper has come asking for help.

A REAL LACK OF STAKES

I’m not entirely sure why, but this entire issue feels somehow lifeless to me, save for Anna’s flashback at the beginning, and even that is mostly unnerving because she’s probably in the clutches of Baba Yaga. Huck’s obsession with his new lady friend is very cute for a minute, but by the fourth panel of his gushing about Zoe, it’s clear that what we’re seeing is very ham-fisted foreshadowing. It’s only a few pages later when it all hits the fan, as Zoe’s ex comes home and she callously proves that she doesn’t care about Huck as much as he does about her. That lack of emotional connection between an ostensibly romantic pairing doesn’t stand out the way it might, since there really isn’t an emotional connection to be had in the book. Everything feels remote, and the events play out in A-B-C fashion. Albuquerque’s art does help on that level, but for some reason, all of the faces in this issue feel like they’ve been cribbed from “L’il Abner.” Huck seems perpetually wide-eyed and slack-jawed, with a hairstyle like Tintin’s, huge cowlick and all. I get that this series wants to distinguish itself from traditional superhero narratives, but this stylistic decision adds even more cognitive distance from the story being told.

BOTTOM LINE: FALLS FLAT

I’ve said this before, but some of the Millarverse offerings feel like springboard pitches rather than engaging stories, and Huck: Big Bad World #1 falls prey to that, at least in part, with art that is above-average, but puzzling in its artistic tone, earning 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. Of course, given that the last time we saw Huck, he was dying in a nuclear explosion in the pages of Big Game, a story that felt equally like it was just running its paces, this is kind of a step up.

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