TITLE: Takio #1
AUTHOR: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILLER: Michael Avon Oeming
PUBLISHER: Icon Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASED: May 9, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Yay for more multi-racial super powered girl power! From Icon (Kick-Ass, Nemesis) no less!

Yes, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming are back with more of the series partially inspired by Bendis’ young daughter Olivia. Full disclosure: I’ve never read the original graphic novel, so I’m playing catch up here. From what I understand, Taki and Olivia, two sisters in an adoptive multiracial family, got superpowers when their friend Kelly Sue’s mad scientist father had an experiment go wrong. They absorbed a lot of weird energy, etc. etc. Now they can use their kung fu telekinesis (read: KUNG FU TELEKINESIS!!) to punch cars. Taki can apparently fly as well. But little do our heroines know that Kelly Sue’s father is attempting to recreate the accident that gave them their powers, this time with a subject much more formidable than Taki and Olivia…

This issue read like a combination of Ultimate Spider-Man (well, what did you expect?) and a modern day Nickelodeon cartoon. The art has a very animated, kid-friendly appeal to it, and the dialogue is very quippy in that kids cartoon kind of way. For instance, we open the issue with a group of clown-masked robbers trying to rip off a donut shop, which culminated with the line: “Donuts don’t pay the bills!”

Combine that with a lunch table gossip scene, and a plot thread centered around the distance between former friends Taki and Kelly Sue, and we get an issue that definitely knows its audience.

I really dig the sentiment behind this book, and I’m all for having more all ages titles on the market, not to mention more young female heroes. But this kind of thing generally isn’t for me. The overly exaggerated, spastic, cartoony style humor is something I’ve largely outgrown since childhood. Or at least am not appreciating it in this story. Still, Takio most certainly has a place on the stands. It just won’t be in my stack on a week to week basis.

***

TITLE: Trio
AUTHOR/PENCILLER: John Byrne
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASED: May 9, 2012

And now for something a bit more old school…

John Byrne knows a thing or two about writing great team books. In the ’70s, he and Chris Claremont produced some of the most famous X-Men stories of all time, including The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of the Future Past. He also created the Kitty Pryde character. He also a classic run on Fantastic Four, in addition to his laundry list of other accomplishments. He also created the popular Next Men series. Now, IDW is giving him yet another team to work with in Trio.

Our team consists of three heroes with rather simple names: One, a female character with elastic powers), Two, a hero who can apparently turn his forearms into big blades, and Three, a rock man similar to the Thing. The media however, calls them Rock, Paper and Scissors. This issue sees them bust up some bad guys before we meet our villain, a pretty cool looking  humanoid sea monster.

The solicitation for this issue says that fans of Byrne’s run on Fantastic Four will enjoy it. I’d say that’s a pretty accurate statement, as this book certainly has a Fantastic vibe to it, not only with the familiar powers, but with the family/team dynamic that Byrne has proven to be very good at playing up. This book feels like something Byrne would have worked on during the Bronze Age, what with the overwritten narration boxes and his distinct artistic style. Fans of Byrne’s entire body of work, or ’70s and ’80s superhero comics in general, will enjoy Trio. It’s a nice throwback with a bit of the modern era thrown in for good measure.

Front page image from leagueofcomicgeeks.com. Takio interior from comicbuzz.com. Trio interior from westfieldcomics.com.