The best of the bunch

The Owl trade
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: J.T. Krul, Heubert Khan Michael, Alex Ross, Vinicius Andrade and Marshall Dillon
Release date: 2016

This book was a happy coincidence. Three other trades caught my eye while surfing the web a few months ago. I added this trade only in an effort to raise my purchase total to a level that would net me free shipping. The other three trades ended up being mere eye candy without much substance. But this gem ended up making the entire purchase worthwhile.

The story springs out of the Project Superpowers concept Dynamite used to bring back a number of characters that were no longer in print and free of any copyright constraints. I read the initial series from 2008 and wrote about it here, but in a nutshell, a huge number of golden-age comic characters were locked away in an urn for half a century before being released back into the modern world. Following the initial series, a Volume 2 version was published alongside a number of limited series spotlighting many of the characters in solo adventures.

This trade collects the four-issue limited series focused on the Owl, a vigilante from the early 1940s. Much like Batman, the Owl has no special powers or abilities in his original incarnation. Rather he had a costume meant to shock and frighten criminals and a number of themed gadgets that helped the hero keep his advantage and defeat his foes. By day, the Owl is Yorktown police detective Nick Terry, and he is frequently joined in his later adventuring by Owl Girl, his real-life girlfriend and confidante, Belle, a newspaper reporter.

Like most of the other costumed heroes trapped for decades inside the urn, the Owl emerges slightly changed. His costume is more dramatic and modern-looking, and the Owl now has some new abilities that help him stun and subdue the more jaded criminals of today. This series focuses on Terry’s efforts to fit back into society and help mankind while haunted by the past he has lost. Owl Girl was not trapped inside the urn as the Owl was, thus robbing this hero of the happy ending and possible family he’d been fighting for. His story is very much one of a man out of time trying to find his place.

Complicating matters for the Owl, is his discovery that the criminals aren’t the only ones who have changed in his absence. A new brand of hero flies through the night skies over Yorktown. And the Owl fears this new crimefighter is no better than the criminals she maims and kills with abandon.

This trade was a joy to read, and I’m glad I finally discovered it. If you aren’t familiar with Project Superpowers, everything you need to know to follow this story is right here in these pages, and J.T. Krul weaves a truly engaging tale. The artwork, while not the best I’ve seen, isn’t bad. I especially like how Heubert Khan Michael switches up his style for the flashback scenes of the Owl’s earlier life, giving those panels a true golden-age feel.