Advance Review: Prodigy #1 (of 6)
Mark Millar is back at it. Not content with deconstructing comic book vigilantism with Kick Ass and Hit Girl, Superman / Captain America mash-up with Huck and James Bond with Kingsman; he has gone on to take a stab at the super genius idea, with a character that is more Mister Terrific than Lex Luthor.
Edison Crane is, quite simply a super genius, super athlete, master of fighting techniques and amongst others things, an expert surgeon. He is more than the smartest man in any room. With a rash of mysterious materialisation causing a concern for the Australian government, they turn to Crane and his magnificent set of skills to explain it, resolve it and maybe even stop it.
Mark Millar is a writer who excels at taking existing paradigms and give them a thorough dissection before putting the pieces back together and in the process, delivers high quality storytelling. Millar sets up the book well; delving into Crane’s young life is a great way to expose the reader to the setup of the main idea in the book, remember showing is better than telling. This method also feels like a natural decompression, with Millar knowing full well that the story doesn’t nee to come out of the blocks at a crazy pace. It also means that we get to appreciate Crane as we see the things that he had to put up with, which in turn makes him a tad more likable than an always right arrogance personalty has any right to be. We also get to see a myriad of his achievements, which are staggering to say the least.
The art is provided by the oft criticised Rafael Albuquerque. Now, in the past I have always liked the majority of Albuquerque’s work; maybe his Batgirl work wasn’t his best, but let’s be fair, those early Rebirth issues didn’t have the most engaging of stories. Here, Albuquerque’s dynamism may give the impression that it works against the pace of the story. However, whilst there are a few action scenes, Albuquerque tends to utilise different camera angles to give a cinematic feel to events, which is well suited bearing mind there is a Netflix connection in play. In addition to the fine set up of panels and pace, Albuquerque seems to have caught a touch of the Capullo’s when it comes to drawing faces. Marcelo Maiolo provides a painted feel to the colors, which I enjoyed, giving the art a more realistic feel. Peter Docherty adds the letters for the book, using careful placement of balloons counter the wordier elements of the script, without breaking up the pace.
By now, fans of Millar will kind of know what to expect. Yes, there will be a classic character trope in play. Yes, it will get broken down and re-arranged. This may seem like a one trick pony, akin to Grant Morrison’s continuing attempts to reunite years worth of history into one continuity, used across a range of heroes. But when the results are this good, you can’t really complain!
Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 5 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Writing by; Mark Millar
Art by; Rafael Albuquerque
Colors by; Marcelo Maiolo
Letters by; Peter Docherty
Published by Image Comics
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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