Retro Review

I really wanted to like Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick. I was even excited about it when I saw it in the previews: it was a comedy book at a time when I sorely needed one, DC Comics having torn the Super-buddies to shreds between Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, and it was by an excellent writer. He’d done a great four-year run on Hellblazer, written the memorable Inhumans limited series that made people sit up and take note of the potential in the characters, and co-created the Sentry, an intriguingly complex character. I thought perhaps all that expectation is what killed Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick for me when it first came out, but even re-reading it now, it doesn’t measure up to any of his other work. It’s unremarkable, a little derivative, and worst of all, not particularly funny.

The story focuses on Superior Boy, the disgruntled sidekick of a Superman-like character called Mister Excellent, and the premise has potential, but the realization falls flat. There are inconsistencies in the story and the characters’ behaviour, because the comedy is more important than the plot. The script is over-the-top and silly in a bad way, and repetitive too. The art, by Chris Moreno, is similarly exaggerated and cartoonish, and while it fits the story as written, it doesn’t serve up any comedy. The sex comedy is particularly juvenile and unnecessary, with nothing funny about it. Finally, there is no-one in the cast to like, no sympathetic character to follow. This is a charmless broad parody when it could have been so much more if it had been toned down and delivered with wit.

 Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick #1-5 from Desperado Publishing and Image Comics. While I’d give it a D for plot or art, the F for script means a failing grade overall. If you want a super-hero parody, there are other books out there that do the same thing far better than this. The Tick and Flaming Carrot Comics have far more substance and wit, and Mister Excellent sounds so much like the Tick in some scenes that you’d be better off reading that. Mystery Men’s Captain Amazing may also have been an influence. The sidekick-hero relationship was already done in Taylor & Fason’s Hero Happy Hour back when it was still Super-hero Happy Hour. Formerly Known as the Justice League delivers a better story and more charm, and if you want all-out parody, Mad magazine or What the..?! are the places to go.

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