After years in the industry, Dan Slott has carved a niche for himself with books like She-Hulk - superhero books which aren't quite outright comedy, but which have plenty of humour, much of it appealing to the sensibilities of the longtime superhero fan.  And he's extremely good at it; at their best, his books provide a reminder of happier times, but without quite sinking into mere retro celebration.

Big Max, his first indie title, moves more in the direction of outright comedy.  Big Max is the world's greatest superhero, and he's an ape.  It's basically your typical Silver Age superhero set-up (secret identity, female ace reporter, you know the schtick) but with goofier villains.  And an ape.

Now, the whole ape thing was always more of a Silver Age DC gimmick, which isn't really my thing.  DC went through a bizarre phase of putting apes in everything, reputedly because somebody was convinced that an ape on the cover was always good for sales.  As a result, to the DC fan of a certain age, apes say "Silver Age whackiness."  Perhaps because I have no real attachment to the original material, this sort of thing tends to leave me cold.

And yet, this works.  It shouldn't.  It's a stock superhero set-up with an ape.  But it's funny, because Slott and artist James Fry know exactly the level to pitch it at - silly, but still taking itself just seriously enough.  After all, there's nothing funny about an ape superhero in a world which is completely silly anyway.  It only works if you have a world which plays by Silver Age rules, which is what we get here.

So we have corny gimmick villains such as an evil mime who can trap people in invisible boxes.  We have the obligatory hardnosed newspaper editor, with dialogue like "Invisible doesn't sell papers!  Apes sell papers!"  And we have an ape whose secret identity involves wearing a mask and claiming to be a man in a gorilla suit - an especially good joke because Slott jumps straight to the next level by ensuring that Max doesn't actually have a decent reason to wear a gorilla suit, since he's been promoted to an admin position.

Okay, perhaps it's a little cosy and familiar.  But that's precisely what you want from this sort of comic.  It's not new, but it's very, very good at what it does, and willing to celebrate the silliness of the genre.

Rating: A-

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