Good story, just short of great. It is a bit heavy handed at points, but overall worthy of 4 stars. ( )

There's a lot going for this story -- good art, good beginning, good characters, good development, good writing, pacing, and so on. The subtle (possibly accidental, but I prefer to think it was deliberate) questioning of the most common tropes in traditional comic book storytelling was quite a nice touch. On the whole, I enjoyed Superior.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped. There were two or three ways that I thought things might go, pushing the edges of readers' expectations -- like making it about the supposed hero succumbing to his weaknesses and becoming the villain, or discovering that his simplistic identification of authority figures as the "good guys" was naive when he realized they were complicit in many of the troubles of his world, or the real hero turning out to be the actor instead of the character he played.

The "twist" plot device, the villain's (along with the villain's patsy's) behavior, and the resolution of the climax were all plot-driven rather than character driven, pat, trite, and a bit hard to swallow, though. It did some serious damage to my appreciation for the story overall, as did the highly simplistic, naive, and somewhat four-color worldview (with edges poking through only in the "safe" places).

The denouement was simultaneously over-the-top positive and -- because of the quiet way some life-destroying illnesses were left largely unresolved -- simultaneously quietly dark (even if only unintentionally so). This is a good thing, because it lent some gravity to the ending while still showing that life does go on, even for those doomed by the entirely prosaic horrors of Real Life.

A charitable reading of the denouement, in terms of its writing quality, lends it surprising depth in a somewhat despairing manner. A more likely interpretation, I think, is that the cartoonish resolution of the climax gives us evidence that the denouement's overtly more cartoonish appearance is all the author really intended, and the greater depth we see is wishful thinking.

. . . but I still enjoyed it. ( )

12-year-old Simon Pooni is a normal decent kid who loved playing basketball and hanging out with his friends, until an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis took that away from him, leaving him in a wheelchair and blind in one eye. He is left with his loving parents, one stalwart friend, and a burning desperation to escape his ravaged body.

One day a talking monkey, Ormon, appears and offers him his fondest wish. He will return in one week to explain things. Suddenly Simon is Superior, a Superman knock-off who is currently winding down a 5-movie arc at the theaters.

In that week, Superior enthralls and inspires the people of Earth, giving hope and courage where both were in short supply. And Simon is loving this life. There's even a "Lois Lane" type reporter for, if not a love interest, at least someone who can help him connect with the vulnerable boy inside Superior when Ormon returns, takes back what he gave, and introduces himself as a low-level demon who hasn't successfully bartered for a soul in 500 years - and that is the price of Simon's remaining a world-beloved superhero.

This is a well-done take on a tried-and-true storyline. I think the loophole at the end that saves Simon is a bit of unbelievable chicanery - and yes, I'm aware how silly it sounds to call something unbelievable in a story about monkey demons bartering for souls. But that's a minor quibble in a very satisfying tale by the author of "Kick-Ass". ( )