Urban Superteens: WildSeed
At the NY comic con this year, I was handed two issues of WildSeed as I passed the Urban Voice in Comics booth.
WildSeed, (no relation to Octavia Butler’s book of the same name) written by Ron King, illustrated by Abdul Rashad, is an up-and-coming comic title published by KIAH Entertainment. At times the art felt as though Rashad is still in the process fine-tuning his style, but nevertheless, both issues are solid and well-executed with plenty of visual entertainment.
The story features five teens with supernormal abilities, on the run from a government agency that wants to contain them. Exposure to a highly advanced virus caused their current condition, and while they desperately want a return to normality, the government agency can’t be trusted to give that to them – no one can.
One is a would-be cheerleader, one is a drug dealer, another is a rock star wannabe, two are just high school students trying to get by, and now all five have to work together to survive. Their families are missing. They’re broke. They’re being hunted. And they may be dying.
Will this series be good? I honestly don’t know, given that only the first two issues, #0 and #1 are out, and the most I can really tell is that this series is competing with other comic books in the “super-group†genre. The fact that it questions who’s worthy of “being super†(via its motley crew) as well as explicitly targeting an underrepresented audience (minorities in urban areas) may give it what it needs to compete.
The cover of the first issue makes the teens look slick, with well-defined costumes, but this ain’t no superhero group with costumes funded by a bald sugar-daddy in a wheelchair. Their gear is a rough mish mash of clothes, sewn together, designed for comfort and identity protection.
Priest: The de-facto leader, with heightened, animalistic abilities and a possible inner demon.
Shiver: Shoots and flings ice, and seems to be the only balanced head in the group.
Jojo: Super-strength, fear-nothing attitude, and a wicked set of tats.
Dana: No code name yet, but when her eyes turn electric pink, she does major damage.
They’re not superheroes. They’re not out to save the world. They’re on the run for their lives, looking for a cure and way back to normality.
I do want to see where Ron King is going to take this. What’s up with the virus? What are the limits of the wildseeds’ capabilities? How can they possibly stick together? What’s their brand of honor gonna be?
The second issue, #1, came out in March 2006. It’s been a year, Mr. King – when’s the third issue coming?
All WildSeed images in this post © KIAH Entertainment.
