HEART: You may know Mark Millar and his Millarworld brand best for those slam-bang titles with an incredibly entertaining approach to action—JUPITER'S LEGACY with Frank Quitely, for instance, or WANTED with J.G. Jones, or MPH with Duncan Fregredo. Quality action storytelling has been a hallmark of Millar's work for well over ten years, but with HUCK, he continues a trend you might've noticed in STARLIGHT: he's amping up just how heartwarming the books he writes are, too. In HUCK, Millar scripts a small town full of smiling faces and a hero who is genuinely fulfilled by doing good. Things get worse, of course, because HUCK is a comic and conflict is more exciting than kind-hearted old ladies. But the kindness grounds the first issue, so when the hits start coming, you really, really feel it.
ART: Rafael Albuquerque is a longtime collaborator of WYTCHES co-creator Scott Snyder, and now he's teamed up with Millar for HUCK. Backing him up are Dave McCaig on colors and Nate Piekos on letters, two more talents worth paying attention to. The art in HUCK is something to behold. Albuquerque is one of those guys who's great at drawing both expressive characters and intense action, which is obvious once you take a look at the silent segments in this issue. With McCaig's painterly palette, the art comes off as feeling very bright and upbeat, even playful. They get across the joy Huck finds in helping people, which is absolutely essential.
NO CAPES: We're used to superheroes in a certain mode. When the aliens invade or a goon gets laid off from his job and decides on a gimmick for their crimes, you call the superheroes to save the day. They show up en masse like the cheer squad at a high school pep rally, do their thing, and then go home, leaving us to pick up the pieces. HUCK takes a different tack. Huck does one good deed a day, and those deeds aren't necessarily stopping a guy in a costume or pulling two babies and a dog out of a burning building. Huck thinks locally: he helps the people in his community, no matter how big or small their problem, and then moves on. Small acts of kindness can hit with the force of a meteor impact on the right day and the right time, and it's fair to say that Huck has committed a lot of small acts of kindness over time.
HUCK #1 is out today.