Writer: Jim Zub / Artist: Sean Izaaske / Marvel Comics
Jim Zub and Sean Izaaske interrupt our regularly scheduled program to deliver a heavy narrative, but one that is extremely close to home in today’s climate. In this issue, Miles and the team are doing their normal charity work when Miles’ school is attacked by an active shooter. Of course, with stories like these that directly reflect real life, what our heroes do and say have more meaning than ever.
By the time Miles and the team make it to his school, the incident is already over. As a friend, you can see the anxiety and fear rush over him at the thought of something happening to those close to him. As a hero, you can see the guilt and hopelessness overwhelm his every thought at that fact that he wasn’t there to prevent the shooter from hurting anyone.
One of the things that I’ve constantly given Zub credit for during his run on Champions is how well he writes each character, maintaining their personalities and different viewpoints. We see that skill come in handy during this story as each hero reacts to the situation and tries to cope. The most prominent is Riri. Coming from Chicago, she is no stranger to gun violence and seeing her point of view on the shooting is saddening but somewhat familiar when things like this are happening almost every month.
This issue does well to highlight the constant fear, anger, and sadness we live in with the state of our society. These feelings are usually at the core of what we feel when something like this happens. However, I do find trouble with the ending. While it’s inspiring to hear Kamala talk about moving forward and persevering through tragedy, it feels like no real solutions are being given.
I can understand Marvel wanting to tread carefully by not making any kind of statements that can be viewed as political, but if you are going to tackle a subject like this, make a statement. Provide solutions. Enough is enough, and our heroes should fight to make sure that things like this never happen again. Staying strong while it happens over and over again shouldn’t be the only answer.
8 out of 10
Reading Champions? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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