HEROINEBURGH #2 – Indie Review

HEROINEBURGH #2, available now from creator Manny Theiner, pits the ferocious feline hero, Savanna, against a new cat villain with close ties and an ax to grind. Meanwhile, the Quinspin of Pittsburgh unleashes an army of deathbots to take over the city.

The Details

• Written By: Manny Theiner
• Art By: Benjamin Zeus Barnett, Wayne Brown, Jason Wright
• Letters By: Benjamin Zeus Barnett, Wayne Brown
• Cover Art By: Jason Wright
• Cover Price: $9.99
• Release Date: Available now

Was It Good?

It was charming in a B-movie sort of way.

Heroinburgh is based on the web series of the same name about a mysterious meteor crash that infuses radiation into women within the blast radius, granting some superpowers. Some women use their power for good, others for evil.

If you’re not familiar with the video series it has a distinct, home video, labor-of-love feel. This isn’t Hollywood-level production, but you can feel the passion of the creators in telling stories they love.

This comic is the second of the series based on the video series, and each of the 8-page stories gives you a full chapter of content that introduces you to the characters and ends on a proper cliffhanger.

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Looking at the mix of art and writing, the art is definitely the high point. The details and textures are rich, and the colors are vibrant. Character designs are near-perfect reproductions of the actors from the web series, but the art successfully avoids looking traced or highly referenced. There’s an almost Robert Crumb quality to the anatomy of the characters without Crumb’s signature cartoonish style.

The writing is not up to par with the art, particularly the dialog. The plot and story structure is clean, clear, and adds in dramatic tension consistently enough to the reader invested, but the dialog is awkward and unnatural. The heroes, more than the villains, speak their lines as if delivered by an old-time radio announcer or Ben Edlund’s The Tick.

The dialog is further hindered by the lettering. At some points, what should be thought bubbles are spoken aloud, and the balloon placement was confusing in some panels. Conversations are sequential, so when you don’t know which balloon to read next, it throws the logic of the conversation off.

Overall, it’s a good looking book, and it’s an excellent complement to the web series, but if the creators want to increase the quality for future issues, more improvements are needed in the dialog and lettering.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

There are two 8-page stories and a section of selected comic strips. We’ll touch only on the 8-page chapters for this review.

Sister Sinister

Ferocious feline hero, Savanna, is trying on her new costume to get ready for her life of crime-fighting in her town of Homewood. Suddenly, her quiet, suburban town is disturbed by gunfire. When Savanna leaps into action, she finds the cause of the chaos is her estranged sister who’s drug use and experimentation have turned her into a bigger and stronger cat villain now-dubbed, Panthyra.

It’s sister-against-sister as they work out years of jealousy and resentment in the streets of Homewood. What they don’t realize is their fight has attracted the attention of another villain, Chlorina, who wants to experiment on Panthyra for her own evil plans.

We’ve already covered the clunkiness of the dialog, but the plot is strong in this first story. Readers get invested when there’s a strong emotional hook, and there are few hooks more relatable than siblings at odds. The setup makes sense, the fight is well-constructed, and the cliffhanger ending builds curiosity for more.

Robots Attack!

Sintilla’s attempts to rob a bank are foiled by Vendetta. In the chaos, Sintilla loses the money but manages to escape arrest.

Meanwhile, oil baroness and crime boss Olivia Queen makes plans with her super-powered lackeys to destroy the city with deadly robots, framing the Heroine League for all the destruction. The Heroine League saves the day and gets some noteworthy narration introductions in the process, but the damage is done and the media spun by Queen has begun.

Of the two stories, this one has significantly more action and heroics but it’s the weakest in terms of story and motivation. Why would an ultra-wealthy oil baroness want to destroy downtown and frame the Heroine League? Her rationale and objectives are never made clear, so it comes off as very one-dimensional. That said, the art is fun, and the action is creative.

How Does It End?

Savanna may have met her match and more. Vendetta gets blindsided. Crainiac gives new meaning to the phrase “beta test.”

Final Thoughts

HEROINEBURGH #2 does what few DC and Marvel comics seem capable of doing, complementing their comics with stories in other media. The stories have a fun, Golden Age tone, and the art successfully blends the real-life actors with a comic style that’s good enough to stand on its own.

Score: 6.5/10