Sidekicks was a fun take on young super-heroes in school that came out before X-Men: The Movie or X-Men: Evolution and showed how this kind of story could be done. I'm glad to see it return at Oni, and even more glad that this one-shot is probably my favorite of the stories so far. The Substitute examines a couple of old chestnuts, one from the school variety (the substitute) and one from the super-heroic (the reformed villain). Though there are super-powers at work in Sidekicks, this is more of a story about bullies, friends and teachers and it has as much in common with Boston Public as it does with New Mutants.
Though I have read two of the three previous Sidekicks stories, it was so long ago that whatever knowledge I had about the book was pretty much lost to the mists of too many other comics. So I think I'm in a pretty good position to judge how accessible this issue is, and I found it very much so. Torres introduces aspects of the characters into the script, letting readers know that the principal is an amazon, that Terry Highland is the daughter of a famous super-hero and that the Shuster Academy exists to protect society from super-kids as much as the other way around, all without seeming forced.
Mostly, this story is not about the kids, however. It's about a substitute teacher who used to be a villain, but who seems awfully nice to have been much of a good one. Her reaction to a prank as simple as a mouse makes for a funny moment, and her discomfort dealing with students and faculty makes her a believable new character. She may have stolen things for a living, but she's very sympathetic and likable, which given the twists in the story seems like a setup for more stories down the road.
I seem to remember thinking that Miyazawa's art, though impressive, had some of the problems that I find with many manga artists, namely a tendency to draw characters very much alike and make them hard to distinguish. I didn't have that problem here, as I thought he did a great job establishing a look for each character, and even those who did look similar, like Terry and Aimee, are given subtle distinctions in their face and hairstyles to make them stand out from one another. More importantly, Miyazawa has a talent for storytelling that extends beyond his terrific action skills and into the expressions and body language of the characters, making the story very easy to read visually.
If you haven't read Sidekicks because you're just not sure about the concept or the creators or something along those lines and you don't want to drop the money on a trade to check it out, here's your chance. Take a look at this one-shot, which gives a good overview of the concept while also providing a solid and very entertaining story and showing you what the creators are capable of. I'm pretty confident that many of those who try this book out will come back for the trade, and I hope that we'll be seeing more Sidekicks from Oni in the future.
