Broken Frontier

Ever wonder what it would be like on your first day as you attempted to become a famous superhero in New York City? Welcome to Gravity #1.

The story starts off as we are introduced to our main character, Greg Willis (who oddly enough, isn’t even named until late in the book) as he makes his first venture into New York City. We learn early on that Greg was in an accident and very quickly after that are shown that this accident gave him powers. Powers which he intends to use to become a superhero. And no superhero would be complete without quirky side characters and a secret identity and real life that get completely thrown out of whack once the costume goes on the very first time. You see, because Greg is also an incoming freshman at NYU, and when a heavy course load and big dreams collide with great power and responsibility, well, something is bound to get screwed up.

Sean McKeever writes a fun little tale here. It moves along at a nice pace, gives a great introduction to the main character and his feelings and beliefs, gets to the action, and introduces the supporting cast without everything seeming disjointed. He transitions well and his dialogue can be very good. The best parts of the book, when Willis is in costume as Gravity, are tremendously written. The dialogue is funny and intelligent. But the book does have its minor problems. The opening monologue is a little too idealistic for my tastes (although I profess I am not a great lover of NYC) and the supporting characters seem quirky but lack definition. A college advisor who challenges his students by telling them to back away from their dreams and goals would be quickly fired and the roommate "Frog" is a hair metal band fan who says "All up in that…" Now whether he is black or white doesn’t matter, the mixing of those genres (hip hop and 80’s metal music) seems slightly out of place.

It seems odd but the way I saw the artwork in this book is the same way I saw the writing. During the scenes of Gravity in costume trying to help out, the book truly shines. In those scenes Mike Norton captures everything you would want in a young hero: courage, heart, determination, and a little naiveté thrown in for good measure. His action scenes display a great deal of skill. But as with the writing, during the other scenes the artwork seems lacking. In those scenes it almost seems as if Norton is trying too hard to capture all the emotions and feeling that he succeeds so well in delivering in the Gravity scenes. I also have a slight problem with the look of the roommate. He just doesn’t look like someone who would be a fan of hair metal bands from the 80’s. And by this I don’t mean he can’t be African American (I actually find that quite inventive), I just think that a fan of bands made famous because of their hair should actually have some hair himself.

In the end though, the good FAR outweighs the bad and the scenes of him in costume are enough in and of themselves to keep me on board for the whole mini-series. Gravity is a welcome addition to the Marvel Universe.

-Sam Moyerman