By Ben Boruff

Bradley Adan and Michael Milham have created a comic that straddles the line between two different narrative worlds. Super Ready Battle Armor's left foot is planted in the slapstick absurdity of shōnen manga (少年漫画), but the comic's right foot touches something more mature—something beyond the comedic action-adventure narratives of similar comics. According to the comic's Facebook page, some reviewers have said that Super Ready Battle Armor is "superhero horror," but that label misrepresents both sides of this story. Protagonists of shōnen manga rarely match Western perceptions of superheros, and "horror" is a poor label for any comic that features a character named Professor Insanus who verbally narrates the actions of other characters (once while perched beside the protagonist's bed like a parakeet). Super Ready Battle Armor has the trappings of clichéd manga, but the narrative, when stripped naked, is surprisingly more complex.