The Almighties picked the perfect time to come out: right after the blockbuster-hit The Avengers. A parody of them, The Almighties has some unique characters but has so much vulgar humor it's hard not to be offended unless it's your type of humor. If it is, you could have a comedic and clever (if you look hard enough) hit. Or you could react the way I did at first: offended.
Now, before anyone yells at Actuality Press and all the people involved with this comic about their "offensive" comic, it does not feel like that is what they want. What they want is to make people laugh, and some will. But that humor has to click with you. If it doesn't, avoid this comic, even if you are a fan of The Avengers.
Five "heroes" are amassed, becoming The Almighties under the direction of White-Out who gives them multiple missions throughout the issue. Each member uses their unique abilities to complete their tasks.
The members themselves are all very unique as well. Despite only being one issue in, each character is very distinct. Maxi-Tron has Super Tech Armor. Nite Fang is a cocky British werewolf. Ms. F can fly, has super-strength and hates her ex-husband. Mason is a psychopathic merc and Stefanos makes some great kebabs. Four characters stick out the most. Nite Fang has multiple insulting remarks that are usually more irritating than funny (but that seems like what his personality came off as to the Almighties as well). He's also clearly the most outrageously vulgar character on the team. Stefanos has a hysterical ongoing joke where he is called in on important missions by president Obama (yes, he's made it into his hundredth comic book since election day – at least, it might as well be). The other great and memorable character was one of Obama's agents, a bit-character who uses "chillax" like it's going out of style – which it has. That's what makes him so funny. My last favorite, Ms. F, was openly flirtatious with leader Maxi-Tron. The funniest part involving her was a quick snapshot of life with her husband.
There are a few of these "quick snapshots" that are very funny because they don't use any cursing or stereotypes and in no way offended me. It clearly shows the writers have a great sense of humor in multiple areas.
Again, I have to stress that I never thought the vulgarities of the comic, namely the obsessive cussing only excused by the insistence on always using asterisks and other symbols, can come across as funny to some people. One page in particular had an extreme reaction from me. When a group of "aliens" are engaged in a meeting, one man goes into great detail about what he would do to a woman, which involves the sexual equivalent of Mr. Manhattan from Watchmen. If the end of this page went any differently than how the writers wrote it, I would give the book a two right away and read no more. But, they save themselves by making everyone in the book sensible enough to react like I did and it alleviated the situation, a mark of great writing. But you'll notice all of these jokes are not necessarily Avengers-related. Anyone can enjoy this issue. You do not need to be an Avengers fan.
As for the story, there is actual substance there. The transition from mission to mission feels rushed, but a not-so-surprising reveal leads to some hi-jinks and funny pop-culture references, including hit songs like "Friday." Though admittedly, some of the dialogue feels a little too long after a while.
The artwork by Eleonora Kortsarz, Pablo Zambrano, and D.C. White is lacking, an unfortunate frequent occurrence for indie titles like this. Some faces look squished into the panels at time, and sometimes the werewolves faces and other characters are oddly proportioned on the panels, especially when the characters are engaging in a fight. The emotions on characters faces also look very forced and become over-exaggerated. Ironically, it's negativities like these that mix well with the humor of the series.
Be warned, this deserves to be a Mature title, not a Teen+. Ironically, I would have expected myself to be more insulted by this title. But after simmering down, it really is a good comic, and does not cross the line like other comics such as Herculian have. The writers have a powerful sense of humor, but if it does not click with you it's not only not enjoyable but insufferable. For fans of The Avengers who don't mind having a ton of vulgarities only gotten away with because of the asterisks, they may enjoy this, and it does offer more than you would expect from such title.
It may even be growing on me a little bit... Enough to see what bat-$H#* crazy thing they're going to do next (*$#K, now they've got me doing it too!).
And hey, where else are you going to see a giant Adolf Hitler robot?
The Almighties #1 is published by Actuality Press, Rated Teen+, priced $3.99, and is available now at www.thealmighties.com in regular and Limited Edition Avengers Movie poster-parody versions.
An all-around nerdette, I’m a comic book connoisseur, horror aficionado, video game addict, anime enthusiast and an aspiring novelist/comic book writer. I am the head of the comic book department and the editor-in-chief of Entertainment Fuse. I also write and edit articles for Comic Frontline. I am also an intern at Action Lab Entertainment, a comic book publisher at which I edit comic book scripts, help work on images in solicitations and help with other comic book related project. My own personal website is comicmaven.com.
