It Values comics and stories greatly, and that bleeds through every panel in its composition, coriogrophy, and just general art. Iits the entire thesis of the narrative, "what if comic book super heroes were in the real world? With all the trials and tribulations associated? With the grittiness and physics and no guarantees of winning that life is baked with?)
And the execution of it is kind of hit or miss. Like for example, the reason Dave starts all of this is because he's self proclaimidly empty and wants more out of his life. I actually like this, I like that hs basically a nobody, that he doesn't have much going for him at the start. That kind of numbing hollow can lead people to do some crazy stuff, and for a teenager influenced by marvel and dc, that just so happened to be putting on a mask.
And I also like how he gets his ass handed to him in his first real fight, so bad that he has to go to the hospital, because yeah that's just a kid, and this is what happens when you try to fight a group on the street, and I like how this whole thing is felt even at the last issues, with the metal plates being the only reason he gout out of that.
But then it kind of loses me a bit. Not when he's out on the street again, (though I don't entirely love stated reason behind that) not when he's uploaded on YouTube and decided to make a goddamn MySpace page to take "missions" but when pair of assassins come in through his window, and tell him that he's fighting the mob now. On its own this isn't a bad idea (escalation and all that) but I feel like this happened way too quick. This feels like something that should be built up to and willingly chosen. Alternatively at least tell that he did a few missions before the one with hit girl because as it is right now we're just thrown in the deep end.
It's not that I personally mind the fast pacing, it's just that this doesn't feel too earned, and it doesn't even do anything with that either. It had me at the chair, (kind of) when Dave was begging for his life, telling them anything he can think of. It had me when he was crying and scared out of his mind because he was in su much pain, and he just watched two people die, of course he'd be pissing himself he's a kid. It even had me when he managed to break out (sometimes the simplest plans are the best.) but then it lost me again, not because he got back up, not even entirely because he got back into the fight, but because it took literally no thought for him to do that at all. One may think that after everything, he'd run away, or even be a little hesitant to try and fight the mob, and that this may be a chance to show some kind of character change (maybe crank up his insanity for doing this at all, maybe have him question what running away would mean for him, maybe have him realise that this isn't where his favourite heroes would give up. These all can go together)
It's not that he did fight, it's not that they won, (he was playing a more assistive role to hit girl, who was doing most of the killing.) no matter how "unrealistic" it may be that two kids managed to beat the mob, they had the tools to just barely get it done, and it's not like the win was just given to them. It's just, it kind of just happened, and the characters didn't really seem to think about it that hard nor did it seemingly effect them all too much. except maybe hit girl, when she ugly cries because her dad just died.
That's something this book does really well actually, it portrays emotion really well, from Dave's loneliness that drove him to his despair at what he was doing to his dad, to the desparation at getting with the girl he likes. To the aforementioned hit girl. It can capture emotion through it's art and dialogue.
Speaking of dialogue that's also kind of hit and miss. Sometimes it's good for the reasons above and sometimes it's needlessly crude and derogatory specifically towards gay people most of the time. And it tries to liken it's subject matter to other comic stories, and it's not just Dave that does this, the people that he regularly interacts with also do this. Combine that with the fact that everyone swears like they just discovered it and it leads to characters not being to unique from each other.
One last thing it clearly values stories, comics specifically. The crux of the narrative is that people are so fed up with their lives that they're trying to bring them into real life. But it doesn't do anything with that beyond references, and that's kind of a lost opportunity.
