No Hero #0 - Review

The Good…

- Another original idea from the mind of Warren Ellis that seems like it’ll be a very interesting read.
- As with his work on Black Summer, Juan Jose Ryp is fantastic in the art department.
- The comic is only $1.00 which is always good.

The Bad…

- Like most #0 issues, it’s terribly short.
- Unlike Black Summer’s over the top intro issue, there isn’t a terribly large amount of action in this opening issue.

Full Review

The team of Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp, fresh off of Black Summer, have now returned with their next saga for Avatar comics in the form of No Hero. The title has been getting quite a push from the publisher both on their website and in shops in the form of posters and ads in their other comics but the big question is will it be able to stand on it’s own, away from Black Summer, and gather a following? Will it actually be a good comic? We got our first taste this past week as issue #0 hit store shelves.

While there’s not really enough content in No Hero #0 to really get a good idea as to just what the rest of the book will bring, let alone do a proper and full review, we do manage to get a sneak peek at some of the comic’s characters and just what the main idea of the book is. It all has to do with showing off the real world for the comic’s superheroes. Many comics, usually from Marvel and DC principally, portray heroes as people who live normal lives and have secret identities without any real backlash in their normal lives. In No Hero, we see a former hero who has massive scars on his arms from the painful process he had to go through to be rid of his powers. We see others mutilated to the point where a normal person, or even a hero, would die. However, because of his…gift, he continues to live in extreme pain. Ellis does a good job of really redefining the word “superhero” and showing the painful reality that many of them could possibly face by becoming one.

Juan Jose Ryp’s work really caught my eye when I started reading Black Summer a while back and it’s safe to say that his work is just as good as it was then. If anything, his work is too similar to the style and character design from his previous work with Ellis. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a bad thing but I can already see people making the assumption, because of the character in the ad campaign who looks very similar to Summer’s Tom Noir, that this is actually Black Summer 2 as opposed to the stand-alone comic that it actually is.

Overall, there’s very little more than just gruesome violence and a quick introduction to the characters and origins of No Hero. To be honest, that’s all I’ve ever wanted so I’m pretty pleased with the issue. My main problem, which is why the issue loses some major points, is that it’s far too short, even for a zero issue. Then again, it’s only a dollar so you can’t really go wrong with it if you’re a fan of Ellis and Ryp’s previous works.

No Hero #0

6.9 out of 10 stars