WE THE PEOPLE #1 Review
"The next generation of superheroes finds their roots in the legends of the past"

By Chad Derdowski August 26, 2009
Source: Mania

WE THE PEOPLE #1 Review
Mania: As it turns out, the legendary characters of Zorro, Robin Hood and Sinbad aren't just the stuff of legends; they were living, breathing human beings and their descendants are alive today. And as it turns out, those very same descendants happen to be friends...well, they were anyway, until a bit of a romantic entanglement turned them against each other.

Realizing that fate has brought them together, the three former friends must put aside their differences in order to expose the machinations of a corrupt city government. Some things never change, eh?

The Good
The relationships between these characters were totally believable thanks to Jason M. Burns' spot-on dialogue. What could've been dismissed as a far-fetched story was totally grounded by the realism he brought to the table. Joe Eisma's artwork didn't hurt either. I've never heard of the guy before, but I suspect I'll hear more from him in the future.

As far as my blurb about "the next generation of superheroes finding their roots in the legends of the past" ...here's the thing: in this day and age, the concept of someone dressing up in a costume to punch thugs and bank robbers is kind of quaint and outdated but the idea of people rising up to fight against social injustices and corrupt government officials seems much more relevant. It isn't an original idea, of course, but it's one that is much appreciated in the world of costumed heroes because we don't see it a whole lot and it's an idea I can relate to.

And $7.99 for 112 pages of full color is beyond awesome.

The Bad
I had a couple of minor issues with a few aspects of the story and the leaps of faith readers were required to take. The motivations of the bad guy never seemed very clear other than sort of a vague "evil men do evil things" notion. The genealogy of the heroes was handled in a similar fashion – when Talia, the descendant of the Robin Hood, discovers her family tree, she naturally meets it with disbelief but when confronted with her innate archery ability, jumps into a costume a couple of pages later.

Normally I wouldn't have an issue with this type of storytelling: I enjoy heroes being heroes and I hate the "let's stretch a story out as long as we possibly can" mentality. Heck, if this was a Marvel Comic, they'd still be sewing their costumes right now and we might see them fight crime sometime next year. I understand that we're reading a comic about the descendants of fictional crime fighters, but when compared to the realism we saw throughout the rest of the story, it seemed that these elements were glazed over just a wee bit too much.

And if I can be nitpicky for a minute, I did't like the paper. I missed a couple of pages because they seemed sort of stuck together through static cling or something. A minor issue, but this section is called "the bad", right? Gotta write something.

The Bottom Line

Cover art to WE THE PEOPLE #1 by Scott Schomburg
I enjoyed this book quite a bit and would be interested to see where the story goes from here. There's a lot of potential to do a monthly series (or a series of graphic novels) following in the tradition of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams classic "Hard Traveling Heroes" era of Green Lantern/Green Arrow. The concept of heroes not simply fighting evil but fighting real evil is a compelling one and while I don't always want to see it in the pages of Superman or Spider-Man (preferring to see more escapism in those types of titles), I love it when a new creation such as We the People shows up to tackle these issues.

Costumed avengers rising up to act as the voice of the people in order to take on "The Man"? Be still, my bleedin' liberal heart. I liked the concept, the story and the characters and I'd definitely be back for the next one.