July
9 Sidekickin' Hero #1

Creators: Dale Mettam, Leslie Nichols, writers; Drew Moss, Courtney Huddleston, Jeff Dabu, artists

Viper Comics, 32 pages, color, $3.25

So? About the only thing more common than superhero comics are parodies of superhero comics. This one-shot tells two tales of Buddy Neben, sidekick and personal assistant to Major Hero. In the first, Buddy has to scramble to get Major Hero out of bed, revive the hero’s memory (he forgets his whole life every night while he sleeps), and out the door to fight his villain. The cuteness of the concept works well enough but is undercut by a very gross gag at the end involving a giant robot’s private parts. Much better is the second story, which explains the origins of Major Hero’s memory loss and Buddy’s role as a kind of personal assistant more common in Hollywood, dealing with discreetly disposing his employer’s tryst du jour, fetching coffee, caring for pets, etc. It’s made even better by the art from Huddleston and Dabu, which is surprisingly polished for a book of this type. Grade: C+