Comics Review: Secret Origins #1

I went with dad to the Coas Used Bookstore satellite location a few weeks ago.  The store had been damaged in a storm last year and reopened after a lengthy remodel.  I wanted to see what the store looked like.  Basically, it was about the same, except the Kid’s Section had been moved to the front of the store.  There was one comic book in the Graphic Novel section and I picked that up.  

Secret Origins #1

I was a little leery of the faux anime-style artwork on the cover, but I liked the characters (before they were mangled beyond recognition in the current DC continuity).  For the most part, the art inside wasn’t a selling point even with a couple of stories drawn by Amanda Conner and Ethan Van Sciver.  The stories themselves are just vignettes recounting the origin stories of the members of Young Justice, as well as introducing a new character, which forms the framing device for the stories. 

 

The new character is Secret.  I’d never seen her before or since.  The story briefly gives her origin, as Red Tornado tells her the origins of the Young Justice team. 

 

Impulse, yet another young version of the Flash, has a convoluted, to say the least, origin.  The story where he recounts it has him fighting some school bullies.  The Flash fighting school bullies and even losing.  Still, Impulse has a likable, well-defined perky personality.  (The artwork and scenes aren’t worth posting a sample of.)  

This was Superboy back in his original 90’s “radical” look, before his makeover (thank goodness).  For the remodel, he got a haircut and just wore jeans and a black t-shirt with a Superman logo on it.  Minimalist, but cool.  This story was set as an X-Men Danger Room-style training lesson.  He’s being mentored by Guardian, a DC version of Captain America. 

     

This story features two Robins, Tim Drake and Dick Grayson, chatting about Tim’s background.  This was probably my favorite of the stories, since I like the characters.  Tim basically became Robin because he figured out Dick was Robin and that Bruce Wayne was Batman.  At least, it’s a straight forward origin.  

 

Okay, I am an unabashed Grayson fan.  I’ve said before, he’s more interesting than Batman.  I’m not saying he’s cooler or a better superhero; he’s just more interesting.  This goes back to Burt Ward and the ’66 Batman show.  Ward was a martial artist and was neighbors with Bruce Lee and sparred with him.  (And they fought on the show as Robin and Kato when Batman met the Green Hornet.)   

Stephanie Brown had a bad upbringing by a Batman villain.  She changed sides and became the Spoiler to “spoil” his plans.  By this, she met Batman and Robin and had a relationship with Tim.  This I knew.

Imagine how shocked I was by this panel.  This delicate condition was not explained in the story and sent me scurrying to Wikipedia.  Tim didn’t have anything to do with Stephanie’s pregnancy, which would have been scandalous, but very interesting.  Steph was also later killed off.  What an overly tragic story. 

 

I didn’t know the origin of the Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl.  After reading the story, I still don’t think I know.  It was told from her own highly biased and embellished perspective.  This was again before her later Teen Titans makeover (a tremendous improvement).  Here, she’s portrayed as a ditzy kid.  In Titians, she’s more mature.  Later, in the Yara Flor/Wonder Girl series, Cassie was kind of a ditz, but had some brains.    

   

The Arrowette origin was again uncomfortable with another bad upbringing story.  Basically, Cissie’s mom was forced into becoming a champion archer by her mom and returned the favor by forcing her own daughter to become an archer and a superhero to boot.  This character has the most attitude of the bunch.       

 

A consistent problem of all of these characters is the lack of a really good origin story, which sort undercuts them finding greater popularity.  (That and being not just derivative, but in fact, a copy of a copy.)  That you needed to make this 80-page giant to explain their origins sort of bears this out.  The Tim Drake/Robin has the best origin of the bunch and is definitely the most popular, though I think that popularity is more due to his updated Robin costume.

 

I wasn’t a fan of the artwork and there wasn’t much in the way of story here, but I kind of liked it anyway.  In spite of their weird origins and lack of originality, these characters are pretty likeable.  The book would have the selling point of making you want to read more about them.