Jim Calafiore

Leaving Megalopolis is a graphic novel by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore that was funded via Kickstarter. I was one of the backers and have a lovely hardcover with a bookplate signed by Simone and Calafiore to show for it. There is now an ongoing comic (I don't know if it's a limited series or not) from Dark Horse Comics, called Surviving Megalopolis, that continues the story.

The premise has the city of Megalopolis cut off from the outside world, under quarantine, after an "incident" in which show more something came out of a crater that formed in the city, a something that caused the superpowered heroes to turn evil. Now, those former heroes are preying on the city's citizens. The graphic novel told the story of a small group of people and their attempt to escape the city.

The comic sets up as a rescue mission, with a small team entering Megalopolis to find two people and bring them out to safety. But, as we learn in the most recent issue, #3), two members of the team have their own agenda, because isn't that always the case? Sure, it is. And in this case, it just adds to the intrigue. The comic is filling in some of the gaps left by the graphic novel while posing new questions about what happened in the city.

This is a great, gritty tale of survival, a different type of disaster story where the heroes people normally turn to for help are now the things to be feared. The people of the city who we meet are all individuals, capable of heroism, and Simone makes us care about them. Calafiore's art is wonderfully detailed. His people look real, full of emotion, and the backgrounds show a city in chaos.

I'll admit I don't love everything Simone writes. I adored her take on Birds of Prey, and I thought her Secret Six series to be amazingly good, but I was less enamored of her writing on the pre-New52 Wonder Woman, and I never could get into that short-lived DC comic with original super-powered characters she wrote (the title of which escapes me). Here, she's at the top of her game, giving us a story that seems so real, a story of fear and what it can cause people to do to survive, good things and bad. But it's also a story of hope, and I hope it's around for a while because I'm enjoying (if "enjoy" can be the right word for such a dystopia) my visits to Megalopolis.
Scripted by Shelly S at 11:54 AM show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

After his run on Black Panther came to an end, Christopher Priest began a short-lived ongoing called The Crew, a team book that included one-time Black Panther Kasper Cole (now the White Tiger) among its members. I wasn't super into Kasper part of Priest's Black Panther run, but The Crew was included in the Christopher Priest Black Panther: The Complete Collection volumes, which you can read for free on Hoopla, so I figured show more why not read it? (I'd already read the issues from the main title collected here, #50-56 & 59-62, so I did not reread them.)

It was kind of worth reading, kind of not. Certainly it wasn't worth it for Kasper, who continues to spin his wheels as a character, arguing with his girlfriend and expectant mother of his child, chasing promotion so he can afford to support his mother and girlfriend. The ongoing thing about his dad wasn't picked up at all, and by the end of these seven issues, Cole isn't really anywhere we haven't already seen him.

The other three members of the "Crew" (never called that in the story) are James "Rhodey" Rhodes, the one-time Iron Man and War Machine; Junta, a superpowered information broker whose mom is a robot who I think appeared in one issue of Black Panther vol. 3; and Josiah X, the son of a black man who was experimented on during World War II in an attempt to create super-soldier serum. The first few issues look at each man in turn; the "team" really only kind of comes together with issue #7, when of course the title was cancelled. Junta probably could have become fun with time, but the real standouts here are Rhodes and Josiah.Rhodes I don't think I have ever actually read a comic about before, but I liked what Priest did with him here; a man who use to be on top but has found himself at the bottom trying to climb his way back up using his sense of justice as a guide. I don't know how the character is in actual Iron Man comics, but I would read more stories about him if they were like this.

Josiah X (called "Justice" in behind-the-scenes information but not in the actual book) is a really interesting character, a black Muslim community organizer who dons Captain America iconography. Can such a man reconcile the contradictions that led to his own existence? How can he wear the emblem of the country that treated him and his father so disposably? Priest and artist Joe Bennett do their best work with Josiah, and unfortunately only scratch the surface of the character. I gather he hasn't really appeared since, but I am curious to pick up the Captain America: The Truth miniseries where his father originally appeared.

As I've alluded to, it's a bit of a slow burn, which was probably a mistake for a book that bundled together a bunch of has-been and also-ran characters; I cannot imagine it sold well at all. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end of seven issues, I wasn't convinced we needed seven issues to see the Crew take down some pretty ordinary gangsters. A decent read, but not really for Black Panther–related reasons. I gather the Crew returns during Ta-Nehisi Coates's run, but not with this line-up. show less

Very well done, if much darker than I expected. The darkening of comics is not a trend I really enjoy; I have no problem with a story that goes into some dark places, but it seems as though we're getting too much of that. I was also hoping that Gail Simone would write something a little lighter, as I know she's very funny, and her DC work tends to be very dark. However, as much as this wasn't what I was hoping for, it was still a very well done story. Interesting characters and a gripping show more finale. I'd certainly read another one of these! show less

It's not that I dislike Kaspar Cole, but I read the book for T'Challa and it was disappointing to mostly have him absent from the last year or so of his title. That being said, I very much understand the change in direction. And I did enjoy The Crew, a title that should have had more time to develop.