Battling Boy by Paul Pope (review)

In this graphic novel, the city of Acropolis is under attack by a series of nightmarish monsters, and when their only hope, the heroic Haggard West, is killed in action, it seems the city is doomed. Enter the otherwise unnamed Battling Boy, the thirteen-year-old son of gods on his first mission to save innocents from the forces of evil. Armed with a guidebook to monsters and a collection of t-shirts that channel animal powers, Battling Boy defeats his first foe (with a little help from his father) and becomes the city’s new hero. Meanwhile, West’s teenage daughter Aurora is picking up where her father left off, experimenting in his secret science lab, practicing with his high-tech weapons, and training to be a hero in her own right. A chance encounter with monsters shows them both how unprepared they are, though, forcing them to realize that they may need to work as a team. This first volume in a series introduces compelling new heroes designed to please middleschool readers. Drawing on a mixture of tropes both classic and cutting-edge, the narrative offers an introduction to the darker side of superhero comics for fans who want moral and narrative complexity but aren’t quite ready to tackle the pervasive gloom of Frank Miller’s Batman sagas. The illustrations are crisp and bright, with most scenes tightly focused on dialogue or battle (though the book is tastefully light on actual gore). The central figure is Battling Boy, preternaturally gifted but still recognizably adolescent and wanting to prove himself capable. Aurora likewise stands on the line between adolescence and adulthood, and though she’s not the star of the show here, she stands ready to emerge into full heroine status in future volumes.