Broken Frontier

Cops are being killed by crazy new super-powered individuals, so they in turn have to go where they never wanted for help-- more superheroes.

Suddenly an old/new group of terrorists has taken a hold of the city of Philadelphia. Freedom Nation, a group last seen in the 1970’s, has seemingly returned to prominence, this time with new members. And these newer, younger members have been taking a new drug, one that gives them superpowers. So as the cops continue to be confounded about trying to solve the case, they turn to the super-powered heroes. The only problems there are the only people who get along worse with the superheroes than the cops are the other heroes! Can they all somehow get along in time to save the city?

There are a good few things about Ryan McLelland’s writing on this book. It’s concise; all the characters are clearly defined; and the conflict is clearly identified. That said, this book makes a real mess of itself through its overuse of superhero clichés. It’s almost as if McLelland went through every superhero book of the last 5 years, grabbed everything that he liked, and somehow threw it together in a book. And it isn’t as if clichés are the worst thing ever, but they are used far too simply here. There is no real depth in the storytelling or the character motivation and there seems to be no promise of that improving. This also leaves no reason to really care about any of the characters or even root for them.

Similarly, the artwork on the book follows the same basic trends as the writing. It is clean and there are never any questions about the flow. The pacing is well done and the characters are drawn as one would expect. Even the action scenes are fairly dynamic. But the designs lack any depth, the facial expressions are simple and stale, and yet again, everything feels as if it was pulled out of the "superhero cliché" book. Finally, even the coloring seems a bit off as everything just feels way too bright.

I’ll be honest here and mention that one thing could probably have garnered a more favorable review from me. As someone who has lived their entire life in the city of Philadelphia, I was incredibly excited to see how these creators would use the City of Brotherly Love as an inspiration for the book. However, aside from a vague street reference, there is nothing distinctly "Philly" about this book. Philadelphia is a city with a rich history and unique attitude, none of which are present here. If you are going to name a book after a city, the city should become a part of the book (see: DMZ, Nightly News, even the NYC of Marvel) not just a title.