Written by: Mike Carey
Art: Elena Casagrande
Colors: Andrew Elder
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Editor: Dafna Pleban and Matt Gagnon
Publisher: Boom! Studios
On Sale: June 5, 2013
Price: $3.99
Format: FC
WHEN THERE ARE ONLY VILLAINS, BEING A HERO MAKES YOU A… SUICIDE RISK.
After barely surviving a super-powered bank heist gone horribly wrong, beat cop Leo Winters vowed to try and find a way to stop them. Following a lead, he discovered two lowlifes who seemed to be able to grant a person powers… for the right price. Thing is: you don’t get to choose which power. It’s seemingly random, a crap-shoot, a risk. And now Leo will find out just how big of a risk he took…
From Eisner Award-nominated creator Mike Carey (THE UNWRITTEN, X-MEN: LEGACY) and hot newcomer Elena Casagrande (HULK, HACK/SLASH) with covers by Tommy Lee Edwards (Marvel’s 1984) and Stephanie Hans (JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY), SUICIDE RISK is a high octane, mind-bending exploration of what it means to be a hero.
Leave it to Boom! to get me to reconsider superhero comics. While I have been a Wolverine fan for years, in recent months I have been contemplating walking away from superhero comics simply because they were feeling like a rehash of prior stories or a confusion of superhero, aliens, magic and other things that didn’t feel as though they belonged in superhero stories (at least not the ones I enjoyed). But Suicide Risk gives me hope that there may be a fresh take on this genre. One that has the reader wondering where the story will go. Just what does Mike Carey have in mind.
To be truthful, the only reason I picked up issue one was that the story was being based in San Diego so I was curious about it. I picked up issue 2 because I wanted to see what Carey had in mind. And I will be picking up issue 3 because I need to know what’s next. This is the first time in a while that I was truly curious what would come next in a superhero comic. Now don’t get me wrong, I haven’t walked away from superhero comics from the big two, but it is harder and harder to spend money on books that don’t excite when there are fresh exciting books such as Suicide Risk hitting the shelves.
Casagrande’s art leaves me looking back through the pages even after finishing reading the issue simply to enjoy her representation of the story. One little hint to Carey and Casagrande, I’m waiting for some iconic San Diego scenes to show up in the book. Come on, don’t let this reader down, it’s why I picked up issue one in the first place. Though even without any iconic San Diego scenes this is a fresh take on the superhero genre.
Final Score: 8/10
