Panel 2: Gotta love the “two-expression” image of Havoc, here, which is a somewhat retro “cartoony” storytelling approach one rarely sees in comics today. The technique’s not in fashion presumably because it’s considered too “silly” and exaggerated for the often solemn and dour view that mainstream comics readers hold towards art styles. This often puzzling and comically—ha ha!—hypocritical preference for supposedly “serious” and “realistic” artwork has always amused me about a certain strain of comics fan. That is, I’ve actually seen readers claim that wildly exaggerated and stylized work which is quite clearly profoundly detached from anything remotely approaching reality is, nonetheless, somehow acceptably “realistic” in their eyes. (The work of the Image founders from the 90s comics scene springs to mind.) Mysterious!

I often wonder if readers of a certain stripe prefer their comics grim and humorless because they’re eager for the field they’ve invested themselves in to be taken seriously. Often I find such work inadvertently hilarious in its solemn, po-faced, scowlingly earnest lack of humor, even as blatantly ludicrous plot holes and goofy narrative excesses pile up in the background. (I’ve developed a grudging affection for Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises along those lines, as the farcical contrast between its ostensibly “serious” narrative tone and the story’s increasingly absurd and preposterous plot twists never fails to crack me up.)

Of course, the punchline to this attitude is that it’s arguably most often held by comics fans of my own demographic—that is, dudes Of A Certain Age and Background (and, likely, beard status), if you follow me. Ah, but given my exposure to manga at a formative age, I’ve long been “out of sync” with the comics preferences of what should, in theory at least, be my generational peer group. Oh, well.

Note also, in panel 2, Major Havoc’s flip phone, which was perhaps not my most well-thought-out option for depicting a superhero’s cellular handset of choice circa 2006. “Oh, well,” again.

-Adam Warren