Catholic-ometer: 3.5 of 5
Enjoyability: 5 of 5
The history of comic books can be traced in terms of "ages." In the Golden Age, we saw the debuts of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice Society, as well as a number of others.
In the Silver Age, a lot of the old superheroes were revamped with sci-fi and fantasy origins and truly bizarre storylines, which would have been perfect fun, if not for the generally-poor writing quality of the time. When Spider-man's girlfriend; Gwen Stacy died, so did the Silver Age, unfortunately.
The Silver Age was followed by the Bronze Age, in which superhero comics did everything they could to address the key issues of the time. Darker and grimmer storylines also tended to pop up every now and then until "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen" were published, and became intensely popular. Unfortunately, rather than learning the lesson that well-written stories sell, publishers made the mistake of thinking that "dark storylines are popular now."
Thus was born the Dark Age of comics, in which all stories were either dark, grim and depressing, or a prelude to something that was. It could be argued that this age has never really ended, since even in the modern age of comic books, writers and editors aren't shy about killing off characters for no reason, and writing mega-crossover storylines in which tons of characters die.
Each age of comics really seemed to make some serious mistakes. The golden age had licensing problems, the silver age was badly-written, the bronze age more concerned with "relevance" than enjoyable storytelling, the dark age was -way- too dark, and certainly not something you can share with kids, and in the modern age, comic books are a mish-mash of all of these mistakes, plus the added problem that many writers and editors try to use them as a vehicle for their incorrect views of moral and political issues.
The reason why I bring all of this up is that in my time reading comics from various companies and various nations, only a few comic books ever managed to avoid making -any- of these mistakes, and only one of them was written and published in America; PS238.
PS238 began as a webcomic, and it can still be found online, if you need a sample to get you interested. Basically, a group of kids with superpowers go to a school for superpowered children, and have adventures. However, this is only the very basic premise. It excels in many other areas.
For one thing, the children in this book act like real children. They're not miniature adults, like Harry Potter, or parodies of children, like Bart Simpson. If real kids had superpowers, they'd act a lot like this.
Secondly, the comic is enjoyable and positive, not unlike the Silver Age comics published long ago, and contains many bizarre storylines as well. However, unlike those comics, it's also exceptionally well-written, and humorous.
The characters develop, not unlike manga characters. They don't always remain exactly the same. Tyler and Ron, for example, have been developing continually over the course of the comic, and Guardian Angel has also undergone plenty of growth since the comic began, though you may not see much of this in the early issues, where everyone is still being introduced.
What amazes me is how, even when the comic gets serious, and addresses tragic situations, which happened in the past, or are happening in the present, it never does so in a negative manner, and the reader is always left feeling that, in the end, things really didn't turn out so bad, even when they did. Williams never -dwells- on tragic occurrences, even when he does narrate them, and I think that may be what makes his work so much superior to the typical fare from Marvel, or even DC these days.
However, the thing that will, I think, draw readers to this comic most is the simple fact that it's something that kids can read. For the longest time, comic books have been struggling so hard to subvert the silver age, that they've become antisocial, mean-spirited, grim, and even immoral. They contain not-infrequent cursing, blood and over-the-top violence, and even overt sex! PS238 is none of these things. It revels in the crisp, clean world of those old, superhero comics, then just writes the stories better, and has fun with them.
That's the long and short of it, really. PS238 isn't just family-friendly. It's -fun.- It won't make you angst, like the X-men. It won't make you upset, like a big, company crossover. It won't make you feel hopeless, like so many comics nowadays do. It's fun, and after all, isn't that the reason why comics were created to begin with?
These comics are all in black and white. That's how they were drawn, and it's how they're being represented. Also, most of the comics in these collected volumes are also available online as part of the webcomic. I say -most,- because there are some special segments in these volumes, such as Miss Kyle's preparations for super-powered teachers, which are only present in collected form. You won't miss much by reading the webcomic, but if you want the whole thing, this is the way to get it. Besides, it's not so easy to read to your nieces off the internet.
This volume covers 6 issues of PS238; Issue 0 (a montage of character introductions and other preparations for the world of PS238,) Issue 1 (in which Ron, also known as Captain Clarinet, must do battle with his fear of flying,) Issue 2 (in which an alien child lands at PS238, and must find a way to integrate with the rest of the class,) Issue 3 (introducing Tyler; the main character of the comic, and the only student at PS238 who lacks any kind of special powers or technology,) Issue 4 (in which the students are stranded on the moon,) and Issue 5 (in which Tyler and some of the others decide to investigate the secret depths of their school, and find themselves pursued by what seems to be a ghost!) All of these stories are delightful and fun.
There are, of course, magical characters in this story, but that's to be expected from a comic about all kinds of superheroes. Because of this, I'm giving the first volume of PS238 the best grade that I ever give to anything that isn't overtly religious, and I fully expect to give its many follow-up volumes the same grade. It's been a long time since we got to see superheroes having fun and fighting evil at the same time, and believe me; it's refreshing to see it again.
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