Two-in-One Review - Noble Causes: Family Secrets Someone's pregnant. Someone's going on a talk show. Someone's an alcoholic. Oh, and almost everybody has super-powers. It's not Days of Our Lives, it's Noble Causes: Family Secrets. Randy: Don and I tend to cover Noble Causes in our regular reviews, but we've received a black-and-white copy of Noble Causes: Family Secrets #1, due out next week, and we thought it merited a special look. Don: In case you haven't heard, Noble Causes is Jay Faerber's super-hero soap opera, featuring the Nobles, a family of super-heroes that's just welcomed its first non-super member through marriage. The book combines the strengths of the two genres quite well, making for a light, entertaining read. Noble Causes: Family Secrets #1 published by Image Comics written by Jay Faerber illustrated by Ian Richardson, John Wycough, Jon Boy Meyers & Damon Hacker Don: Liz Donnelly-Noble does her first television interview since her husband Race's death, and Gaia's nervous about the rookie of the family representing the entire clan. She handles herself well, though, doing an excellent job of keeping the family's dirty little secrets. And in a flashback story, we learn of how Rusty's wife Celeste came to meet her husband's half-brother... and her future lover. Randy: While the super-hero genre has always had a heavy crossover with elements of the soap-opera genre, Noble Causes is one of the few comics to really acknowledge and play off those elements. Much like Powers or Astro City, the super-powers are secondary, a trapping around the real story, which is all about the over-the-top melodrama surrounding relationships, media scrutiny and the conflict that comes out of that kind of pressure. Don: I'm guessing it's that focus on and critical look at celebrity that serves as the book's main appeal. Soap-opera melodrama is not my thing, so I think it's Faerber's toppling of the pedestal of fame that's really got me hooked. These characters aren't the victims of super-villains or paparazzi; they're victims of their own egos, their impulses and the inherent emptiness of their wondrous lives. Randy: Faerber has created a cast of interesting characters for this series that maps onto well-known super-hero figures in some respects, using that as a character shortcut, but generally is based on Faerber's own ideas. You can get a sense of the Fantastic Four in the family aspect of the book and the family patriarch Doc Noble, but you usually won't find Reed drunk in his lab after his robotic creation tried to murder the whole family. Rusty has the same hot temper as the Human Torch, but the Human Torch isn't married to a philandering sexpot a la Joan Collins or stuck in a robotic body. In other words, though these characters may share surface similarities in powers to familiar characters, Faerber isn't pulling a "Supreme" here, telling super-hero stories with DC and Marvel trademarks with the serial numbers filed off. Don: In a book full of colorful characters with powers and tempers without equal, I love that it's the sole human cast member who really shines. Her down-to-earth attitude and straightforward demeanor are a welcome change amid this bunch of extreme personalities. And though Liz is annoyed with her new family's dark side, she's still loyal to them and to the memory of her husband. Randy: Family Secrets is a new mini-series, as the Noble Causes series converts to a series of mini-series, and Faerber creates a nice balancing act between making it accessible to new readers and making old readers have to start over with the series and forget everything they've already read. The framing device of Liz Donnelly-Noble on a talk show works very well to introduce the characters, but it also serves as a culmination of Liz's outsider role in the first mini-series. And while the relationships of the characters are made very clear to the new reader throughout this issue, they have different resonance for those of us who already know these characters and some of the recent history they've shared. The title also indicates one of the most interesting things about this arc, a couple of big secrets revolving around Zephyr's baby and Frost's parentage which will hopefully be resolved over the course of the mini-series. Don: There are a couple of new revelations to keep those following the property interested, but not as many as I'd like. I applaud Faerber's efforts to make the book accessible to new readers; he's definitely succeeded in that goal. But it seemed to me the first story, for the most part, did a bit too much in the way of rehashing. Still, the juxtaposition of Liz's comments in the interview with the reality of the state of ... ahem ... affairs in the Noble clan was entertaining. I have to admit that I didn't care for the backup story, as it portrayed Celeste in a one-dimensional, corrupt light, as opposed to simply being flawed or weak of spirit when it comes to her transgressions. She's painted too much as a villain here, as opposed to someone who just doesn't fit in around the Nobles. Randy: As is traditional for Noble Causes, this story features two pairs of artists, one on the lead story and the second on the backup tale. The styles are fairly similar, and both are pretty solid. John Wycough's inks make Ian Richardson's pencils blend smoothly with the art performance that Pat Gleason brought to the book, and while the art has definitely changed, it's not a jarring shift. The same strengths of character design and storytelling are there, and I was particularly happy with some of the work that Richardson put into the backgrounds, such as Gaia's garden or the Doc's lab. On backup, Meyers and Hacker deliver some work that reminds me of J. Scott Campbell's work, and it's perfect for the tone of the backup story, which presents Celeste at her most sexy (or slutty if you're feeling less generous) and Frost as his bad boy best. For more information about Noble Causes: Family Secrets and a five-page preview of this story, visit www.nobleswatch.com. Email Randy and Don comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.