Alt-Hero 1: Crackdown cover featuring Captain Europa and Dynamique.

Vox Day’s eagerly awaited crowdfunded comic has finally made its debut with Issue 1 – Crackdown and it is a promising start.

Alt-Hero was offered to fans on Freestartr with a sales pitch that it would be a be a challenger and eventually a replacement for Marvel and DC on the basis that those organisations have become, “SJW-converged”. Many fans perceive the output of the major comics publishers as having declined in quality in recent years whilst clumsily pushing increasingly extreme far left views.

Vox Day set out to prove there was a market for an alternative and did so in spades. His initial campaign asked for $25,000. He made nearly ten times that – Alt-Hero raised $235,900. Like Kickstarter, Freestartr allows creators to specify a variety of awards levels including one which begins, “This is for those who could not care less about comics, but enjoy tormenting SJWs and would enjoy the privilege of triggering them […]” How could anyone resist? I went for one of the higher tiers because (a) LOL, (b) LOL and (c) Vox Day has a history of delivering quality product, albeit sometimes with delays.

Although I supported the campaign, I did so with reservations. I like much of Vox Day’s work and that of Castalia House – Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker for example. Mutiny has an eerily accurate portrayal of the far left – and its depiction of a ‘Social Party’ meeting reminded me all too uncomfortable of my youthful attendance at Labour Party meetings before I became a Conservative. However Vox can push too hard sometimes to his own detriment. Fortunately so far Alt-Hero has remained pitch-perfect satire.

WARNING – Spoilers after the Break

The comic begins with a beautiful female model sitting peacefully outside a café smoking and drinking coffee when she is unprovedly attacked by men in black special-ops gear. She is soon revealed to possess superhuman powers and flees to the air only to be restrained and imprisoned by a male superhuman, soon revealed as “Captain Europa”. Our heroine is offered the choice of sex-offender style registration or €250K per annum tax free and a job as a EU superhero, “Dynamique”. Understandably, she chooses the latter.

Captain Europa agrees that Dynamique can continue her modelling career as long as she avoids “excessively provocative” photo shoots (leaving her frustrated about a lost lingerie contract) and refrains from smoking whilst in her superhero uniform.

This panel is okay as a slightly comedic dialogue panel.

The remainder of the episode deals with Dynamique’s introduction to the rest of the EU superteam and first mission. The comic appears to draw heavily from the rich legacy of the comic industry – one hero called Dr Nano is deeply reminiscent of The Engineer from the Authority. Others satirise the left – there is a superhero called, “Rainbow” for example.

The story revolves around an attempt to crack down on online political activists, who are depicted with the logo of the real-world identitarian movement. Outside the world of comics, Identitarians such as Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner have been subject to exclusion from Britain in recent months as well as raids in Austria. The doubts expressed by Dynamique (about vast police resources expended on mere, “twitter trolls” and legitimate dissidents instead of real criminals) are the same as the arguments used by supporters of the real Identitarians, although that by no means makes them illegitimate.

I am a Conservative not an Identitarian but I have grave doubts about subjecting legitimate, peaceful, critics of immigration to criminal penalty.

Vox Day’s comic series has started well. The script is good and the art is colourful and vibrant. It is by no means perfect – in particular I would like to see the beautiful model better drawn especially in her large and full page images. The smaller panels are good – the colourful and more comedic style used is appropriate for much of the dialogue – such as Dynamique’s rage at Captain Europa over cigarettes. The cover illustration is ok to good, not great.

This illustration of Dynamique (left) clearly fails to meet the standard of the image of Rebel (right) from the promotional material. Dynamique here is a nice, colourful image but far from iconic.

The Castalia House Imprint that produces Alt-Hero is nearly new, but its products are surprisingly polished for a small Indie publisher. The story is interesting and satirises current events. For now, Vox is delivering on his promises and it is only likely to improve. Alt-Hero is good – let us hope it will become great.

In accordance with the MHN Comic Review Guidelines, I rank the story for this comic as worth 40/50 points and the art at 35/50, with an adjustment of +5 because I like it.

Final score – (80/100)