NEWSARAMA Says Zoom Suit is the Comic of the Year!
Zoom Suit #1
Superverse April 2006 $2.95
Written by: John Taddeo
Penciled by: Billy Dallas Patton
Inked by: Kris Justice
Website: http://superverse.com
Rating 4 stars (out of 4).
Zoom Suit is easily the indy comic of the year. It surely never aims low in its goals of sucking in the reader and the talent writer John Taddeo has assembled to help him with his book (like the guest covers penciled by greats like Jim Starlin, Billy Tucci, and Bart Sears) can quickly draw eyes at the comic store. The fact of the matter is while a story about a teenager gaining superpowers isn’t new; Zoom Suit brings to the table a youth with the wit of Peter Parker who finds Iron Man’s costume combined with humor and a multitude of pop culture references that will please any fanboy or Family Guy fanatic.
Aliens have crashed on Earth at Roswell and sixty years later what does the government have to show for it? If you said nothing then you are dead wrong because the government was able to acquire and study the suits the aliens had come to Earth in. However, after sixty years, the government is unable to duplicate the suit and make an army of alien suit guys. What’s next for Agent Simon Bane, the man who has been studying the suit? It should be to deliver the supersuit to the Pentagon but once the helicopter is boarded to Washington D.C., Bane decides on other plans. Bane jumps out of the helicopter and blows it up in the process. Falling to Earth he opens up the case he has with him and starts to put on the suit he has just stolen from the Government and do so before he becomes a pancake. As the wind blows by Bane puts on the first glove only to find out that the suit doesn’t actually fit him.
A couple thousand feet below Bane is Myles, your average poor kid living in New York City. It’s Halloween and Myles is the only kid who came as “himself.” The other costumed kids make fun of him as they rightly should and Myles watches the girl he likes walk off with Power Ranger and Wolverine. Myles is pissed and he wishes to himself for a costume. Why can’t he have a costume? CRY MYLES CRY! And then, out of nowhere, falls a supersuit into an alley. Of course Myles runs over and puts the suit right on only to find out this is no Halloween costume. Suddenly Myles is running over water, flying through the air, and saving some poor tenants stuck in a burning building.
Of course this is only the setup and the exact above story has been seen by hundreds of thousands thanks to a short cartoon film that has been accepted and won many film festivals across the country. Zoom Suit #1 helps bring the story to comic fans nationwide and does so with wickedly funny scripting by Taddeo and the incredible artwork of Mister Miracle’s Billy Dallas Patton. Patton’s artwork comes through with a great crispness that rivals the art on any of the big books from DC or Marvel (which is probably why he’s working over at DC now). The book feels indy in a way that the old Valiant Comics once did: exciting, fresh, and bringing something new to a story already told a dozen times. Nearly every page is filled with pop culture banter but does so without feeling overdone. As a matter of fact, as I read the book, I found myself quite proud each time I spotted a reference and knew where it was from. Call it the geek in me but I find that stuff kinda exciting.
I’m not quite sure where the mini-series is going or what to expect but this quick and easy origin story of the kid in the “Zoom Suit” was an amazing addition to my comic book collection, as it should be for any fan. It easily attains a perfect rating and I only hope that this great series continues on long after this first mini-series is over.
Have an indy comic you’d like reviewed? Contact Ryan at rdmclelland@hotmail.com!
