Comic Review – “Brain Boy” #1

I’m a sucker for a story that starts out with our protagonist caught in the middle of some mess then then flashes back to show how she/he got into said mess.  (See: “Alias”, Mission Impossible: 3, numerous other shows and stories.) That being said, this is how Brain Boy #1 starts:

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I love it.  Right away we see our hero — for lack of a better word — strapped to a chair, guns pointed at him, and he says he has his enemies where he wants them?  Fred Van Lente doesn’t waste time hooking us with what appears to be an implausible statement.  Of course, we know that this being a comic book, we will soon learn how implausible this is.

As it turns out, we flash back to earlier that day, where Matt Price is driving to meet General Ricorta, the foreign national he’s assigned to protect on his way to the United Nations General Assembly.  As it happens, Matt is more than just some Secret Service detail; he’s been trained to use his psychic abilities to not only read minds, but also use them as offensive weapons.

The thing I like the best about his introduction is we immediately see how he can use his power in every day life — “hate-surfing” the thoughts of the other people stuck in traffic with him.  I love it.  It’s a very benign use that is the psychic equivalent of you or me browsing Wikipedia — we’re bored and need something to do.

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As you might assume, if Matt’s got powers and he’s assigned to protect somebody, that somebody is a target and will probably be related to the trouble Matt gets himself into.  But before that, Matt meets up with a shady character who wants to glean knowledge from Ricorta’s mind; in exchange, he’ll give Matt the real truth on what happened to his parents.

The “Your parents didn’t really die in an accident” isn’t exactly a unique twist, but Van Lente deftly executes the rest of the first issue with such enjoyment that you don’t care.  Also, he has placed limits on Matt’s mind-reading abilities that nicely give the character more humanity rather than having him be someone who can slip into people’s deepest thoughts as if walking through a park.

Along the way, we get hints of mystery, intrigue, and secret agent doings, plus an ending that makes you stop and think twice about all the players in this spy game.  R. B. Silva, Rob Lean, and Ego provide a nice crisp and colorful book too look at that doesn’t play in the shadows unless necessary.

Overall, this is a series worth picking up.  It’s at your local comic book store today; go get it.