The world is in danger. Aliens are attacking and we have no hope. No hope except for the Olympians! The Olympians are a group of heroes that have banded together to take on whatever is required to protect Earth. Thankfully, these heroes are up to the task and they work together flawlessly to defeat the alien menaces and save the world!
Sounds like a movie doesn’t it? Maybe because it is. Or is it?
REAL HEROES is created, written, and drawn by Bryan Hitch and takes super hero movies and turns them on their heads. We are introduced to a group of actors, the most popular actors in the world, who are all cast as The Olympians. A group of super heroes who use their powers for good. To protect those of us that can’t protect themselves from forces beyond this world. On screen, they are gods. In real life….eh, not so much. They are an amalgam of stars: the party boy, the rap star, the british guy, the diet girl, the pretty girl, the serious guy. Hitch takes great measures to show us that they are very normal people. Well, besides the constant whining for their agents and them thinking everything is a PR stunt.
What makes REAL HEROES interesting is that it plays on the things we love right now. Namely big fantastical super hero movies. However, it gives us an interesting twist. I’m not going to spoil anything, even though the pre-marketing for the book pretty much tells you what happens here. Let’s just say that we better hope these actors are really, really good at their roles.
Hitch does a great job with the story. He has a prologue that establishes one character as someone that perhaps is not just an actor. He has something to fight for and believe in. He fleshes out the rest of the actors to where you know who they are in a short amount of time. You can see who will follow which path, at least early on. It will be interesting to see who does what you think and who changes throughout the six issue mini-series. Hitch also does a bang up job on art. This book really looks good. The faces he uses on the characters ended up reminding me of real life actors. I thought one character looked like Chris Pine, another like Bradley Cooper. Not exactly like them, but enough that it lent to the feeling of them being real actors. It was a nice touch.
Hitch takes what we all love about super hero movies and makes them real. This is going to be a fun ride.
Written and drawn by Bryan Hitch
Price: $3.99
Published: March 26, 2014
Image Comics
