Idolized #3

Super heroes compete in the world’s most watched TV show, as young men & women are pitted against each other in physical & psychological combat to see who will become the next “Superhero Idol”! Featuring colourful characters such as Joule, Radium, Wireless & Regenerate.

The Team

Written by David Schwartz, illustrated by Pasquale Qualano (She-Hulk Vol. 9 : Lady Liberators, The One HC) & coloured by David Curiel. Cover by Micah Gunnell (Dellec Vol. 1 : Hands of God). Published by Aspen Comics.

The Pros & Cons

Basically, it’s an American Idol type TV show where super heroes fight each other and the fans call in to make their votes to see who gets booted off the show. The story focuses on Leslie, a young woman who as a child witnessed the murder of her parents at the hands of an unknown super powered being. Years later she’s a contestant on Superhero Idol as she plans her vengeance on the man who destroyed her family, now why that figures into her revenge plot I haven’t a clue (gimme a break, I didn’t read #1 & #2). Now this has to said, it’s hard to not compare this series to Image Comics America’s Got Powers (click here for my reviews of #1, #2 & #3). Besides a few minor differences, Idolized is exactly the same.

Now having said that, this isn’t a terrible series, in fact I kind of liked it on some weird level. The protagonist is a revenge fuelled character with straight forward powers, she can shoot powerful energy from her hands & has the power of flight. The characters are as colourful as their costumes, have cool sounding code names & interesting powers, like Psychedelix, who can send her victims on weird drug like trips & Wireless, who can manipulate the internet with his mind. You learn about every contestant and what their gifts are and as the story progresses, the ending has a Hunger Games vibe to it. Part of the competition has the contestants go through a series of tests, one in particular I thought was interesting, was a simulation & recreation of one of the planes from 9-11. The contestants are strapped in their seats and have 5 minutes before the plane crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Centre.

The illustrations are by Pasquale Qualano, who’s slick & smooth drawings seems to fit with this series. After all, this is Aspen Comics, home to sexy, scantly clad heroes & heroines with model like bodies like Michael Turner’s Fathom & Soulfire. It’s not exactly what I’d label as “Bad girls” comics, but it’s not too far off. The cover’s art is very nice & the variant cover is a real life photo of a Victoria’s Secret model, which I thought was very different.

The Outcome

This is my very first Aspen Comics issue and it wasn’t bad at all, it’s very much steeped into pop culture, which should appeal to a young audience. I’ve just peeked into Aspen Comics website and I’ve browsed through their repertoire of titles and I look forward to reading some more of them. If anybody out there has some suggestions for me, please e-mail me to comicsthegathering2011@gmail.com