Andi Watson writes romance, slice-of-life, the occasional fantasy, but an ongoing super-hero comic for Oni Press was about the last thing I expected. Fortunately, while Watson is defying my expectations of genre, he lives up to my expectations of quality, and Love Fights really does read like (hokey as it sounds) Astro City meets Breakfast After Noon. The notions of romance, career and general life struggles that made Slow News Day and Breakfast After Noon so compelling are absolutely here, they just happen to intersect with a super-heroic world that has its own sort of Silver Age charm, filtered through a modern lens. No surprises here; this is a great book.
As is fairly normal for Watson's stories, the focus is on two lead characters but the supporting characters seem pretty fleshed-out as well. We meet Jack and Nora together, but we mostly see them apart in this issue, learning about their lives away from one another. What's interesting is the way that Watson relates both of their jobs and their life difficulties to super-heroes, and yet they aren't all that far removed from troubles people would have in a non-super universe. Nora is stuck in a job where her boss won't let her try to advance, and Jack is stuck in a relationship rut because he's intimidated by his (mostly imaginary) competition. The fact that Nora works for a super-hero-oriented magazine, or that Jack's relationship difficulty is that he fears women only want super-heroes, doesn't take away from the universal nature of their problems.
But then, Watson has always been strong at hitting on universal themes and problems that people can relate to. The difficulties of being out of work, deciding to spend your life with someone, visiting a foreign country or trying to forge your career path, these are things that anyone can relate to. He's also touched on the fantastic, with his work on Geisha or Skeleton Key, but my fondness has generally been for his more down-to-earth work. However, Love Fights seems to be an exception, because Watson's light and humorous take on super-heroes is a lot of fun so far. Tying the mundane, like a discarded cigarette or a subway ride, into the fantastic, like an underground lair or a super-battle, works out very well. And the notion of a hero with an ego about his public persona, while tackled in other stories before, is certainly entertaining too.
Watson's artwork is also not a style I would have imagined working well for super-heroes in general, but the angle he's taking on Love Fights makes it a perfect match. As always, the focus is on people and their emotions, and Watson's style is perfect for that, capturing everything from the bemused look on Jack's face as he is taunted by his co-workers to the cruelly detached attitude of Nora's boss. There's also a sense of the city in Watson's backgrounds, seemingly influenced strongly by modern London and New York, and though we don't see as much of the super-hero elements here as we will in #2, Watson gets across the grandiose nature of those elements as well.
Really, it wasn't hard to guess that Love Fights was going to be this good. The only other ongoing series by Oni Press is Queen & Country, which is one of the best series on the market, and everything Watson has done with Oni has been pretty impressive, to this is about as close as you get in comics to a sure thing. Fans of Watson's previous work will want to pick this up, but those who like Astro City might also take a look at this series, which extends the distance from the super-hero world a little bit more without losing the charm of the setting and the genre.
