Project Superpowers

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Promotional Image by Alex Ross
Promotional Image by Alex Ross

Project Superpowers is a comic book limited series published by Dynamite Entertainment beginning January 2008. It is co-plotted by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, with scripts by Jim Krueger, covers by Alex Ross, and finally interior art by Doug Klauba and Stephen Sadowski. Ross is also art director, which includes sketched pages, colour guides, and redesigns of most of the characters.[1]

The series resurrects a number of Golden Age superheroes originally published by companies including Fox Comics, Crestwood Publications and Nedor Comics, many of whom are in the public domain, including the protagonist, Fighting Yank.

Contents

[edit] Characters

The characters include:[2]

[edit] Plot

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (February 2008).

The first issue of the series (#0) depicts an aging Bruce Carter III, formerly the Fighting Yank, confronted by a spirit that comes in the form of a fluttering American flag and claims to be "the blood of [...] patriots" who died for America, including the Golden-Age superheroes who were Carter's friends and colleagues. This "American Spirit" visits Carter in 2008, sixty years after World War II, to force him to make recompense for his own actions during and after the war, which are revealed in flash-back.

Carter, working for the OSS, was ordered to retrieve Pandora's Box, which had by unexplained means found its way into Hitler's hands. The box had, since Ancient times, reabsorbed all of the evils that were released from it in the myth, but Hitler opened it and released them again, thus starting World War II. The box also contained hope, however, and that hope (according to Carter's superiors) created the Golden Age of superheroes. Thus Carter was ordered not just to retrieve the box, which is in this series depicted as an urn, but to use it to trap all his fellow superheroes inside it along with all the evil spirits that Hitler released from it. Carter's spirit guide, the ghost of his own great-grandfather, Bruce Carter I, corroborates the US Military's theory and urges Carter to follow his orders.

Carter traps The Flame in the urn at the end of WWII, while they're fighting the Japanese on the same day that America bombed Nagasaki. After the war, Carter, who "was now CIA sanctioned," continues trapping heroes in the urn, both his compatriots from the war and new heroes who appear. Thus, in the contemporary world of the story, there are implicitly no superheroes left in the world. The American Spirit tells Carter, however, that instead of stopping evil, which has continued in the world, he merely trapped those who could fight it. An argument ensues between the ghost of Bruce Carter I and the American Spirit in which they both try to convince Carter III of what to do now (either nothing, because he did the right thing in the 40s and 50s, or try to free the superheroes who are in the urn, because he condemned them to purgatory). Carter III eventually believes the American Spirit, who tells him to consult his one World War II colleague, the Green Lama, who returned to Tibet after the war to pursue his Buddhist meditations.

The series will, then, eventually free the trapped superheroes and, most likely, set the stage for a superhero universe to be published by Dynamite Entertainment.

[edit] Series synopsis

The following synopses are of the issues that have been released so far:

[edit] #0: Last Gleaming

This issue is described in the above Plot section. The title is from the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner.

[edit] #1: The Rumors of My Demise...

Bruce gets to Shangri-La and tells the Green Lama everything; the Lama agrees to help him. They magically travel to New York, where the Dynamic Man and his robotic "family" (who make up an enormous corporation called Dynamic Forces) try to destroy them; Bruce succeeds in breaking the urn, and the Black Terror appears and joins the fight.

The title is from a famous quote by Mark Twain.

[edit] #2: ...The Whites of Their Eyes

The good guys make their getaway to Shangri-La. The Terror says that he can't forgive Yank for what he's done, and intends to eventually kill him. Meanwhile, other heroes appear elsewhere; The 'Devil rescues a female police officer during a riot in France, and The Flame appears near the Hollywood Sign. Also, two heroes who weren't trapped in the urn — The Scarab and Samson — meet in the war-torn Middle East.

The title is part of a famous quote by Colonel William Prescott during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

[edit] #3: Proof Through the Night

Using tracers that were placed on the Black Terror without his knowledge, the Dynamic Family's soldiers (who are modeled after the American Crusader) locate and invade Shangri-La. The Green Lama changes the weather from summer to winter in order to fight them, but the Fighting Yank is attacked and apparently killed in the battle. Meanwhile, more heroes appear; Masquerade (who has amnesia) encounters V-Man[3] in Japan, The Flame reunites with Hydro (formerly Hydroman[4]), and Mr. Face appears in a Spanish-speaking country (which one is not yet clear).

This title, like that of #0, is from the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ross and Krueger on Superpowers, July 18 2007, Newsarama
  2. ^ Ross! Krueger! Dynamite! "SUPERPOWERS!", July 18 2007, Comic Book Resources
  3. ^ V-Man at the Comic Book DB
  4. ^ Hydroman at the Comic Book DB

[edit] External links

[edit] Ineterviews

[edit] Reviews