Comic Book Review: Super Hero Happy Hour Volume 1 written by Dan Taylor, art by Chris Fason
At the end of the day, many superheroes are still mostly human, and some of them could use a drink to relax with, and some conversation with other people who understand their issues. In First City, those heroes go to the Hideout Bar and Grill.
This small press series is set in that bar, and this volume reprints the first four issues. The first story is mostly Seinfeldian banter, while the second is about Ladies’ Night. The third issue introduces a new hero to First City, and leads into a bar brawl with supervillains in the fourth.
Most of the characters fall into identifiable archetypes; Night Ranger and Scout are more or less Batman and Robin, Guardian owes a lot to the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, and so forth. We find out much more about these characters in the dossiers printed as an extra in the back of the book–including the back story of the bartender, only hinted at in the fourth issue.
This was a first professional effort from both creators, and it really shows with clumsy dialogue, thin characterization and crude art in the first issue. By the fourth story, they’re much improved, but still with a long way to go.
There’s some comic-book violence, of course, and discussion of sexism in the second story. Practitioners of voudoun are likely to be unhappy that once again, voodoo is simplified down to a guy summoning zombies.
This is okay for a small press comic, but no great shakes. It might become a collectors’ item if either of the creators hits it big in the future.
