E-RATIC #1, available from AWA Studios on December 2, 2021, introduces an average kid with a troubled home life who just so happens to have superpowers. When Oliver arrives in a new town, doing his best to fit in unnoticed, things go from bad at home to worse with giant mech squids attacking out of the blue.
The Details
- Written By: Kaare Andrews
- Art By: Kaare Andrews
- Colors By: Brian Reber
- Letters By: Sal Cipriano
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: December 2, 2020
Was It Good?
It’s… interesting. This is one of those comics where you get engaged with what you’re reading but no one moment stands out. There’s a Disney Channel TV movie tone to the book but with a mature edge and a more intelligent satirical bite
The art is colorful, imaginative, and slightly whimsical. Admittedly, a few panels are a little unpolished, but as a whole work, it’s visually fun. It may take another readthrough or two to hook you, but this book is definitely worth watching.
Short Story Long
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Oliver is the new kid in school. Dragged to the town of Mapleton by his mother’s new job, he’s struggling to fit in on his first day. Of course, his bigger, older, and more athletic brother has the school wrapped around his finger within minutes.
Despite his awkward manners and shy demeanor, Oliver gets chummy enough with a few classmates to not feel totally alone. An older student, Kristen, has definitely caught his eye, and he perhaps has caught hers.
Up to this point, Oliver is portrayed as the shy kid that can and does speak up when he needs to. There’s an element of courage in his unassuming demeanor that makes it easy for the reader to get on Oliver’s side.
What follows is an odd tonal shift in the book. So far, establishing Oliver, his brother, and mother comes through as a very slice-of-life story. But when Oliver cycles through a montage of his new teachers, the tone takes a satirical left turn. Each teacher is portrayed as an outlandish caricature of social engineering and hippie archetypes that personify everything wrong with the modern education system.
The teacher portrayals are amusing enough in isolation, but they don’t seem to fit the authenticity of Oliver and his family. They’re two great tastes, but I’m not sure they taste great together.
In the B Plot, the raging Communist, Social Studies teacher, Mr. Marquez learns he has not been selected for the Vice Principal position. The bad news doesn’t sit well with Mr. Marquez. More on this later.
Cut to Oliver’s mom who learns her first day at the new job has evaporated in a scam. The realization she’s in a new town with new bills and no money hits her like a brick.
Back to Oliver leaving his first day of school when he’s accosted by an eccentric looking older gentleman in a car. He asks Oliver if he wants to intern at a private lab. Oliver quickly declines. This out-of-the-blue character introduction straddles the line between Oliver’s slice-of-life authenticity and the wacky teacher caricatures. It almost fits but there’s something that’s out of place, and the scene hints there’s something unique about Oliver.
Cut to a lonely scene on a nearby bridge where Olive reviews a video on his phone of a birthday moment between him and his father. It’s not clear if his parents are divorced or if the father is deceased, but the great acting put into the art sells the emotional weight of Oliver’s pain.
Back home, Oliver and his brother can’t get into the apartment because they don’t yet have keys to the new place. Mom arrives shortly after them, drunk and with a dented car. We’re meant to pick up that Oliver’s mom is either a full-blown alcoholic or on her way.
Back to Mr. Marquez. He approaches the principal in his office to ask for reconsideration on the Vice Principal job. The Principal explains Marquez was passed over because he’s too tenured to fire but not respected enough for anyone to care.
And then… something happens that heavily implies Mr. Marquez is not everything he appears on the surface, and the Principal learns he may have just crossed the wrong Communist.
Back at the apartment, Oliver decides to go for a sunset bike ride to clear his head after his mother passes out on the sofa. Coincidentally, he encounters Kristen walking her dog with her little brother, and they stop to say ‘hi.’
Suddenly, the classmates are attacked by a giant, tentacled robot breaking through the ground. At that moment, Oliver activates superpowers that appear electrical in nature but allow him to swing and leap around like Spider-Man. Oliver saves everyone but not before his street clothes get shredded and Kristen captures the entire event on her phone.
Without spoiling the ending, we learn Oliver is not exactly unique, and Kristen makes a clear decision about what to do with her new-found knowledge.
Final Thoughts
E-RATIC #1, available from AWA Studios on December 2, 2021, introduces a new hero that feels like an authentic kid trying to make it through the average troubles of life. The writing is engaging and the art pulls you into this new, albeit slightly off-kilter, world.
Score: 8.2/10
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