Comic Review: Hero Squared Omnibus (BOOM! Studios)

It’s the classic tale. A superhero crashes onto a parallel Earth in a parallel universe, searches for his counterpart to help him face his arch nemesis only to find that his counterpart is a useless waster! Typical

Captain Valor is in this exact situation. His nemesis, who just happens to be his ex-girlfriend (hey, we’ve all been there) has destroyed his universe and now has her eyes set on doing the same here. He needs help. Unfortunately, Milo, his alter-ego, skipped school to go to the movies the day that he should have been bestowed the powers of Captain Valor.

This is a Brilliant comic, it’s funny, full of action, and although maybe not a totally original concept it has a brilliant take on it. Yeah, we have seen “comic heroes” come to life in the character’s world but I don’t think we have ever seen them have to have couples therapy with each other and their respective girlfriend counterparts. Hey, apparently it ain’t cheating if it’s the same person.

With Milos girlfriend Stephie falling for Eustace (Valor) and Captain Valor’s version of Stephie, Calignous, falling for Milo and poor Sloat stuck in the middle it makes for a lot of unwanted overtime for Dr. Tolstoy.

It really questions the whole Hero/Villian situation as well as even though Valor is the typical Hero type his first thoughts are always violence no matter how strongly he denies it, and of course Caliginous sees him as the Villian in all this. It’s refreshing to see both sides of the story and the mundane side of what would happen if a hero came to life in today’s world.