Huck

Even in this day and age, superheroes still tend to have lairs, fancy outfits, and all kinds of folderol. Not so Millar's fantastically endearing new star. Huck is a thickly muscled but sweet-natured grown-up orphan who works at a gas station, wears nothing but overalls, and spends his days making lists of planned good deeds. These range from finding lost pets to rescuing hundreds of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. Huck is something like a more functioning version of Steinbeck's Lenny, albeit with superhuman strength and an ability to dash down roads at supersonic speeds. Needless to say, his idyll as the aw-shucks semi-lonely good guy is challenged when dark secrets from his past rear their head, and multiple parties try to take advantage of his good nature. Albuquerque's (American Vampire) art is kinetically charged and lavishly colored. Millar (Kick-Ass, The Kingsman) delivers a punchy and propulsive story with heart while toning down his bent for ultraviolence. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Orphaned as a child and raised by small-town foster parents, hulking gas station attendant Huck is considered slow even by his friends, but he's really just quiet, with a simple outlook on life that's uncommonly kind and generous. He makes sure to do one good deed a day, and some of those deeds involve using his superstrength and a miraculous ability to find lost items. After watching the 2013 Superman film Man of Steel, Millar, concerned by the continued darkening of superhero stories-a trend he had perpetuated in books such as Kick-Ass, The Ultimates, and Civil War-laudably decided to create an antithesis here. The book's early pages, recounting Huck's many kindnesses and his encounter with a crass politician who wants to exploit him, are genuinely sweet. Unfortunately, the story eventually veers into more familiar territory for Millar, and gets tarted up with one particularly gratuitous trashy-looking female character. The artwork, likewise, progresses from quite nice to moments of inconsistency and inelegance. Though marked as Volume 1, no continuation has been forthcoming. VERDICT Huck the character is a treasurable creation; the book, less so.-SR © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.