I found this story to be quite charming. With a title like Not So Super it basically implies that there is something super about it, but it’s presented quite differently. It’s definitely ripe with influence from other forms of entertainment and it also reminded me another comic I’ve read, but couldn’t place it for the life of me. Dan narrates us through his life and it’s simple and effective for the story. In order to understand the changes that will occur in Dan’s life over the course of the story we need a starting point, an idea of what is normal so we can see what isn’t. The story takes us through an average day in Dan’s life, same clothes and food; attractive nerdy female neighbor that he’s obviously lacking any confidence in approaching and an IT job for a big corporation. The IT job and some of the jokes are almost straight out of The IT Crowd. Now it could be that I recently finished watching the entire series, but they seemed too close at times. It’s not bad and works with the story so in the end does it really matter? No and in fact made me like it more, but I didn’t need some other nerd yelling it out at me.
Through an annoying co-worker we learn that Dan has a big presentation about IT stuff the next day. The morning arrives and Dan wakes up late and is forced to rush to work. The amazing thing is that he can see without his glasses suddenly and this excites him. After dealing with the annoying front desk demon… I mean receptionist, Dan heads into his meeting where everyone gathered is having a real breakfast. Eggs, toast, bacon; this seemingly harmless meal is about to change Dan’s life.
The pacing for this issue is spot on. It keeps a strong rhythm and even though we’re not seeing a lot happening, it feels like there is. We move through Dan’s average day and on to his abnormal day and suddenly we’re at the end of the issue. Thankfully writer/creator Jacques Nyemb chose to leave the story with a glimpse of the future rather than start the issue with that. If this was any other comic dealing with powers, that’s how it would have lazily started, but that is certainly not the case with Not So Super. The narration is very good throughout the entire issue. I was glad that it didn’t just disappear half way through the issue which tends to be the case with a lot of stories driven by narrative. Dan’s narrative also didn’t come across as overkill; it gave the right amount of information, but left something for the character to say out loud.
There’s a very animated look to the art style and it perfectly complements the story. For me the thing that can quickly deflate a good independently produced story is the art. It’s a difficult task to find the right style for the story, but Joe Hunter is a great fit. His line work has a boxy look to it with plenty of extra squiggles thrown in for style, but personally I really liked the look. It also grounded the world in reality rather than a non-super hero story in super hero clothing.
I’m not really sure about how you can get this issue at the moment, but you can stay up to date with their Facebook page. Also keep an eye out for an upcoming Kickstarter project as well. I really enjoyed this issue and if it went to Kickstarter I would definitely send money its way. It’s a type of comic that I want to read and found it to be surprisingly all-ages, but not is an obvious way. It wasn’t until I finished reading it that I thought about how it was something you could give to a teen or even a younger reader, but it wasn’t something I thought about while reading it which is what usually happens with all-ages titles. I liked that this was a comic in its truest sense, something that anyone could read and enjoy.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Jacques Nyemb
Artist: Joe Hunter
Self-Published