In the real world, especially today, the forces of small-mindedness and censorship often win. In the real world, outfits like the CBLDF fight the good fight and win occasional victories alongside a string of disappointing defeats. In the real world, it often feels like if your choice of entertainment doesn't conform to the lowest common denominator, you're in danger of losing it to the folks who want everything to be "safe for kids" and have the power to legislate against or eradicate everything else. Thank goodness that Teenagers From Mars isn't set in the real world. Oh, it's recognizably similar, but it's got the just off to the left vibe of stuff like Heathers or True Romance, where the bad guys aren't always the real problem if they're at least bucking an unjust authority, where a clever plan and a plentiful amount of balls and brains can result in madcap violence and chaos in service to a greater good. Teenagers From Mars is a twisted love story, but it's not just the love story between a teenaged boy and girl... it's a love story about the medium of comics.
Teenagers From Mars has a tone that celebrates youthful rebellion and the power of free expression, along with a healthy dose of anti-institutional anarchy. As with every good teen movie, the enemies are close-minded adults who have forgotten the joy of youthful expression and imagination. Spears does paint with a pretty broad brush, such that his villains are more cartoonish and one-dimensional rather than realistic, but they make for excellent representations of the type of close-minded authoritarian bullshit that is going on daily in our culture war driven society. There's a sort of magic realism at work in Teenagers From Mars, and while the book isn't a straight on comedy, the satirical edge that it carries means that elements like the gun fights at the end and the infiltration of the government building are played more as rebellious pranks than terrorism against an established government, and the consequences aren't as dire as they probably would be in the real world.
However, this magic realism does not mean that Teenagers From Mars lacks bite or real feeling. The despair that Macon feels when faced with the empowered majority that just doesn't get him is very real and easy to relate to, the troubles that disrupt the Macon/Madison relationship effective in making us care about the couple and how they wind up and the after-effects of some of the violence a great heart-stopping moment or two of real, physical consequences. Spears and G provide a framework that is fantastic, but it's grounded enough in the real, especially in terms of human reactions and emotions, that the reader never loses connection to the story.
My first exposure to Rob G's work was on the action-heavy Couriers books from AIT/Planet Lar, and while Teenagers From Mars is quite different from those books in a lot of ways, there's definitely plenty of action to be found. Everything from the rampage against the Mallmart to the infiltration of the government building and the gunfights at the end are top-grade action movie stuff, and G does some excellent work in particular on forced perspective shots that put a gun barrel right into the reader's face or bloody, bone-crunching punches and kicks that have a kinetic impact despite their pen and paper origins. Rob G also has great design sensibilities, capturing the rebellious youth vibe with the clothing he puts the characters in and nailing the visual cool of the classic car or the splash page of righteous vigilante justice that finishes out the book. From a draftsmanship perspective, Rob G's art might not be as photo-real and consistent as many artists you'd find in the ranks of the mainstream superhero books, but from a storytelling and energy perspective, he surpasses most of them.
This is a book that is probably best described as a modern-day fable. The characters and the story are a little bit on the outrageous side, but the passion behind the book is strong and the storytelling from a writing and art standpoint is just about perfect. Teenagers From Mars will get your blood boiling a little bit even as it gets your adrenaline pumping, and it will probably leave you with a big 'ol grin on your face.
And quite possibly a desire to go out and do something to fuck with The Man.
