Well, it took me more than a decade but I finally got around to read the first issues of Freshmen, and I absolutely loved them. The basic premise, as Sterbakov explains is that “a bunch of college freshmen have been given superpowers by the explosion of a special machine, and the powers are based on whatever they were thinking at that moment”.
What would a normal freshman be thinking about in the middle of the night? Lots of things. And it is the variety, the randomness and also the naturality of these thoughts that Sterbakov manages to convey with ease and good narrative pulse. Before the explosion, all the main characters have attended a party at a fraternity. “So one guy can burp at anyone and make them drunk, one girl can make everyone fall in love with her, another guy is totally sticky, that dude can talk to plants, this girl can jump into people’s minds… and they’re (sort of) led by a comic book geek who didn’t get any powers and a talking beaver obsessed with building dams”.
In addition to this crazy selection of power, Sterbakov creates characters that are unique and very memorable. For example, the high school valedictorian that got drunk at the party and ended up throwing up had sworn never to drink again (as all guys do when they’re really drunk), and yet his newely gained powers are based on alcohol and now he’s in a perpetual state of hangover. Of course some have more useful powers than others, for example there is the boy who was humiliated at the party, stripped naked and ridiculed due to the modest size of his penis, at the moment of the explosion he has unzipped his pants and is measuring his penis, feeling dissatisfied with its size: his power will be having an extremely long dick. The vegan in the group gains the power of communicating with plants, which in the end will prevent him from eating even a salad, since he can hear every plant talking to him and complaining about things. I could not stop laughing at the irony of having a vegan regretting even the possibility of eating an apple (since the apple yells at him ‘please don’t eat me’). And what about the couple that had sex and now they must touch each other to use their powers even if they’re constantly fighting?
frat party / fiesta en una fraternidad |
does size matter..? / ¿el tamaño importa..? |
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Hace más de 10 años, recuerdo haber leído un artículo en línea sobre Freshmen, una miniserie Top Cow / Image descrita sucintamente como “Las aventuras de estudiantes universitarios de primer año con poderes extraordinarios”. Por supuesto, incluso bajo esta descripción bastante genérica, supe de inmediato que el escritor Hugh Sterbakov junto con el cocreador Seth Green habían inventado algo especial.
before the superpowers / antes de los superpoderes |
gifted... / dotado... |
disagreement / desacuerdo |
Norris |
First mission / primera misión |
I love Robot Chicken so I should read that sometime. Part of it reminds me of a book called All Those Explosions Were Somebody Else's Fault by James Alan Gardner where a group of Canadian college students receive superpowers in an explosion, though their powers are more traditional. I didn't really like the book's main character and narrator though.
ReplyDeleteBTW, as another Robot Chicken/comics connection, Geoff Johns wrote some skits for the show in the 4th season.
That book sounds interesting and a nice complement to this miniseries.
DeleteRobot Chicken for the win !
Me encantó el concepto de cómo adquieren los poderes, cosas más al azar de las que se han visto en los orígenes de otros héroes. Hasta me hizo preguntarme qué me habría terminado pasando a mi, dadas las cosas en las que me pasaba pensando en la escuela.
ReplyDeleteHooray I got both volumes and the first volume of Die on sale on Comixology so I'll read them at some point.
ReplyDeleteThat's great !!
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