#it was supurbia by grace randolph

[dickgreyson]

devin grayson book where dick did what???

yeah girl devin grayson had some weird book published where like. roy/bruce and dick/ollie had weird inappropriate tension and ollie said smth along the lines of 'theyre such good looking kids, we couldnt be blamed if we molested them'. absolutely feral she needs to atone.

it was fully published BY DC

below the cut

weird dick/ollie stuff

and i remember there being more but like most links are broken now. i think this is enough tho. you can find it here

[co-mixed]

Supurbia: Superhero Picket Fences

When you see a Controversy section on the writer’s wiki page, you shudder. Especially if you happened to already love their work. But sometimes it’s not a massive issue at all as was the case with Grace Randolph. Let’s get this out of the way – I only know her through her work, so that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about. 

Supurbia. 

This story is all about what happens between the sheets after your classic save-the-day team of superheroes takes off their tights and capes. A more interesting part is, it’s not even their story – it’s the days of those who wait for them at home and those who pick up the pieces when they fly full speed to yet another battle. Which right away makes it an interesting take. 

What do you think got me interested in the first place? More spoilers below. Honestly, not that many. Even if you read them, you'd still find plenty of new info in the book.

It’s a character-focused book, so it would be impossible to discuss it without dissecting the faces on the cover. 

Meta-Legion is the Justice League of this world. They even follow the pattern: the all-powerful stone-faced hero, the billionaire with gadgets, the warrior-princess, the boy scout leader, the guy with unexplained space powers, and Nightwing. Fine, maybe that’s more of a character salad, who cares. It’s not even them I really want to talk about. 

The All-Powerful Sovereign is your typical domestic tyrant and he picks the perfect victim too, a reformed villain Hella Heart. Her life’s absolute nightmare and that is exactly what makes her interesting. Sovereign has less in common with Superman and more with Dr. Manhattan. While Hella needs attention and understanding. She doesn’t get it from him, and she doesn’t get it from her Wisteria Lane neighbors. Even if they attempt to connect, it always comes down to their own agenda. Is it even surprising that she eventually slips? 

To be fair, I was rooting for her not to. She gives this victim-of-the-circumstances vibe and still tries to do the right thing. Kinda like Harley Quinn if she was locked in a house with laundry and dishes. Most of Supurbia characters are like that, you know who they’re based upon but they are still different enough for you to ignore it. 

We only get to see the beginning of Hella’s full arc before the run gets canceled. So I imagine, she had miles to go. 

Meanwhile Sovereign himself remains a distant figure. By the end, he’s just starting to get in touch with any emotions. So again, canceled too soon. 

The billionaire Night Fox is having an affair with Nightwing I mean Agent Twilight (not that Twilight and not the other one). Night Fox’s wife and business partner Alexis finds out and it’s your typical betrayal story that hurts a whole bunch of people. While the unhappily married couple decides what to do and how to be, Agent Twilight becomes one of the most sympathetic and interesting characters. His love is all bruised and tortured, and he is almost ready to give it up even though he doesn’t want to. Not only I would still like to see how the whole story plays out, I’d like to see way more of his friendship with Tia. 

Tia is the wife of Cosmic Champion (unexplained space powers) and a former superhero. Reminds you of anyone? Yeah, Jessica Jones. She gives up patrolling and fighting crime to raise her daughter. But unlike Jess, Tia misses it and she isn’t afraid to fight about that with her husband Dion. She manages to get her way too, and she ends up in an awesome costume speaking in tricky rhymes. She even saves the day when she goes after Batu.

The Warrior-princess Batu has two kids and a husband, and believe it or not, their lives are far from perfect. So far, in fact, it gets better before it gets worse, not the other way around. Batu is not a Diana-type, she’s quite the opposite and reminds more of Sovereign. If you look closely, most of these heroes lack empathy which is the reason for their domestic troubles. Batu is no exception – her issues with her kids are a good example. She ignores her son when she believes her daughter is the one with the inherited power, but as soon as she finds out otherwise, she forgets all about her. I like how this story in particular developed with a balance of a caring father and a powerful but absentee mother. This is what drives Sara to evil. If only we got a little more of this evil child and could see her grow from a rebellious teen to a real threat… 

And then there is the person through whose eyes you are supposed to be looking at all of it, the newbie on the block – Eve. She’s a superhero fangirl and the wife of new Marine Omega who arrives to the neighborhood with her husband just before the old one passes away. 

Out of all the characters I liked her the least. She had this optimistic desire to get involved that, for the most part, is a foreign concept to a millennial. She wants to help, she’s a nurse, she’s nosy for good reasons. She also saves the day and becomes a hero. But that was still not enough for me to like her. Matter of taste, I suppose.

Art and overall thoughts

The art in this book is vibrant. That’s the best word for it. It’s not my favorite style but the more you get into the story, the less you mind it. In this case, the art fits the story well. It’s a little… mischievous would be the right word. And it sort of lightens the whole mood of the book. It works in harmony with lettering, colors, and really, the more I think about it, the more I like it. 

These days Russell Dauterman is mostly associated with a very specific X-men look, so it’s easy to simply not recognize his work. I didn’t, he certainly grew and changed a lot. 

Covers are another part that’s hard to ignore. They immediately make you think “Desperate Housewives”. And it’s probably very intentional because this story certainly has similar vibes. Less than let’s say, Vision, but more than nearly anything else. 

Supurbia is a good read. It’s emotional as hell if you let it sink in. And you should. It has great characters, complex heroes, and scary villains. Villains might not be the driving force here but they’re formidable and by no means easy to defeat. Supurbia can give you tons of enjoyable content and hours of fun, but I won’t recommend it to you unless you can live with an unfinished story. It has a conclusion, but it’s certainly not over. 

[thecomicsnexus]

SUPURBIA #1 - 4 MARCH - JUNE 2012 BY GRACE RANDOLPH AND RUSSELL DAUTERMAN

SYNOPSIS

Meet the supporting cast of the Meta Legion, a super-hero group. They all live in a suburb, where they can rely (and protect) on each other. But they also share and suffer from their worse moments as well.

REVIEW

This story has many surprises and it kind of reminded me of “Invincible”, another story that started as a “different take” at established characters that is not bounded to the same restrictions those properties have.

While the main focus is on the wives, husbands and families of the meta legion, we also follow them. I think it would have been a bit better if the Meta Legion didn’t have that much to do in the story, but I understand it is important to show both sides of the story for it to make a bit more sense (and put some tension in the story).

There are a couple of surprises that I felt were worth discussing (spoilers, of course). The affair between Night Fox and Agent Twilight is a take on Batman and Nightwing. But Batman was never married, and that is the twist here, that his wife doesn’t really understand their relationship (well, she doesn’t have to understand it), and to make things even worse for poor Agent Twilight, his lover doesn’t want to give much credit to their relationship. In this case, while we were first introduced to his wife (Alexis), Gio (Agent Twilight) also becomes one of our main characters. This is a nice complex love triangle to have.

Another twist I liked was the fact that Eli (Batu’s son), seemed to have powers (or maybe he was just skillful). The disappointment in Batu’s when she learns that her male child has powers already tells you a lot about the kind of pressure that family lives in.

There are more moments like these. The main background plot was in the back burner for most of the series and came back in the first issue to the foreground. To me, this twist in particular seemed predictable from the moment Eve moved into the house.

The writer is probably more known to you by her YouTube channel than by her comic-books. This is the first material I read from her. I feel like this mini could have worked on Image better, but perhaps because of the “Invincible” similarities someone decided not to.

The art is a bit rough on the meta human fights, but it fits for the “behind the scenes” sequences. Telling a story like this requires an artist that is good at both (like Kevin Maguire, Sara Pichelli or Adam Hughes). Still, it is nice to look at, it won’t ruin your experience, but it could have been a bit more engaging with that kind of style.

You can actually buy the full bundle (this story plus the ongoing).

I give this story a score of 7