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Introduction:

From The Press Release:
“It is the far future; the human race has finally colonized the galaxy, preserving an era of prosperity that’s only possible because of The Hypernaturals. They’re a celebrated, galaxy-wide superhero task force that keeps the peace. That is, until they all mysteriously vanish. Now, as the galaxy teeters on the brink of chaos, it’s up to a group of retired and long forgotten Hypernaturals — and their novice recruits — to save the galaxy from complete destruction.”

Vitals

Title: Hypernaturals #1
Writer: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Artist: Brad Walker and Andres Guinaldo (With Mark Irwin and Mariano Taibo)
Covers: There are seven different covers and are credited as follows:
Cover A: Francesco Mattina
Cover B: Trevor Hairsine
Cover C: Phil Noto
Cover D: Timothy Green II
Cover E: Timothy Green II
Cover F: Trevor Hairsine
Cover G: Stephanie Gonzaga
Colors: Stephen Downer
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Content: Hypernaturals is for Teen+ readers and contains violence and adult themes.


Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cost: $3.99

Story:

In the far flung future there is peace and humanity has spread all throughout the galaxy. The reason for that peace is a group of superhuman beings called “hypers” and the best of them exist as a team known throughout the galaxy as The Hypernaturals. This elite force is comprised of the most powerful and brightest hypers that humanity can produce.
The team is also the galaxies greatest celebrities and their every move is documented through the media, both on the field and off. Without this team, fear would reign and those wishing to remake the galaxy in their image would run amok. They are the best and only defense against other super powered beings that could bring the galaxy to its knees if there were no one to stop them.

The latest batch of Hypernaturals, known as the Centennials, were recently dispatched on their first mission to stop an extremely intelligent and equally destructive hyper known as Sublime. The mastermind was threatening 1.7 billion people and the Centennial squad was mobilized right into the thick of things.

The citizens of the galaxy began to fear the worst when communication with not only The Hypernaturals, but with the entire sector was lost.

Now, what is left of The Hypernaturals in the form of rookies and retirees are scrambling to discover the fate of the team, the citizens, and and may end up being the last line of defense in the process.

Review:

I’ve read a bit of Abnett and Lanning’s other work, and they really seem to gravitate towards the opera of space quite a bit having worked on The Legion of Superheros for DC, Nova Corps and Annihilation for Marvel, and also Soldier Zero also from BOOM! - just to name a few. It was high time that the duo took a gambit and created their own universe in which to play and create. We have The Hypernaturals as a direct result of that.
The first issue is a great start to the series as it already has high stakes involved – the entire galaxy and the human race hangs in the balance. I really appreciated the quick twist of the plot, throwing in the aged and newbie heroes into the mix as it made me care for these characters already, knowing that the first and best line of defense in the Centennial group had already been vanquished. There was a real sense of drama and an unknown factor with this book that I quite enjoyed.

The art and coloring was quite fitting and of a high quality. The crisp details and bright colors fit well with the idyllic futuristic setting and I enjoyed the package as a whole. The art team did a great job in portraying the story and helped set the stage for what we can expect in future issues.

Probably my one big critique, and this is more on me than anything, was the high vocabulary level that Abnett and Lanning used on some of their descriptions. One example would be in the editorial boxes used to describe the first set of heroes powers, one character, Thinkwell, is described as being able to do, “Cryptomathematic Disassembly Notation.” That is mouthful to say the least and took me a bit to figure out. I don’t really want a dictionary at my side when I’m reading a comic, but the wordplay was clever…maybe a bit too clever for the average fan.

Conclusion:

Any small jibs aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this first installment of The Hypernaturals. It was great to have a sense of danger with the cast almost immediately and that is a good thing. The realization that the heroes could be snuffed out at any moment created a good tension that carried through the comic. It would seem that Abnett and Lanning have a winner here and it is high time they got their own piece of the space opera pie.
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