For many years, I’ve been reading the film reviews of Roger Ebert religiously, and during that time I’ve noticed a trend in his likes and dislikes towards young heroes. Every once and awhile, Ebert has a hard time taking child-warriors seriously because they always seem to be smarter and savvier and stronger than the adults around them.
But I couldn’t agree with him less. I like it when the kids are smarter than the adults. It reflects how I often felt when I was growing up, and now that I am sadly transitioning over into adulthood (it doesn’t officially begin until I turn 30), I fear that even now, there are young ones running around who are far more superior than I’ll ever be.
That is why I enjoyed Jorge Medina’s Russ 5377: he’s created a group of kids who are strong and smart enough to fight back against the adults, while still maintaining a note of youthful naïveté. The story centers on young Russ, an orphan whose mother died in a fire long ago. Because of this, he’s now living in the Luis Judin Home for Youths with a crew of friends a lot like him. They’re smart and brash, but still a little wobbly in the true ways of the world around them.
I can’t say that these kids are trapped in the orphanage, because it’s a pretty swanky place—these are not Oliver Twist’s diggs. Media has set us in a futuristic world without drawing too much attention to it, and the orphanage is a nice-looking locale, fixed up with the latest technology. But as these things go, there’s a dark underside that’s using the children as experiments. For what, we don’t know. Perhaps I’m wrong after all—maybe the children are more trapped than they appear to be.
The premise doesn’t scream originality, but nonetheless, it has a heart. Medina knows what he wants to get out of his story and characters, and he’s giving it all of his attention. I particularly like the children that populate the pages of Russ 5377, as this is only the first issue, but I see some interesting personalities already beginning to develop.
Where my interest was lost was with the villainy working against the children. The unknown enemy of the orphans is a one Professor Morb, and he’s a knockoff Dr. Doom with an afro. I’m not sure if the character is meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek, but he comes off as clumsy and unnecessary. This problem is matched by Medina’s overuse of narrative caption boxes. There are several instances in the comic where the artwork should be left to speak for itself, and not be polluted by distracting omniscient cues. That’s the whole point to graphic storytelling, isn’t it?
But those quips aside, Russ 5377 is still an honest comic that does its job well. My acid test is usually this question: “Do I care what happens next?” And for this book, yes, I do. I feel invested with the orphans, and I want to see them succeed.
And for anyone in the area, the MAS Media Studios crew will be premiering Russ 5377 on May 1, 2010 at the Bronx Heroes Comic Con 2 at Hostos College in the Bronx, NY. Stop by and check it out!
This comic book review originally appeared on Broken Frontier.
