Continuing Marvel's intriguing programme of launching new characters with negligible publicity and then being surprised when nobody buys them, we have Gravity, a five issue mini by Sean McKeever and Mike Norton.

Greg Willis is a rookie superhero from Wisconsin who's come to New York to make his name.  His big idea is that he's going to fund his activities by licensing his image.  This is not an inherently bad plan, save for one little detail: it assumes that anyone's going to care.  And in the Marvel New York, one more bozo in spandex with fairly generic powers doesn't really stand out that much.

This is the sort of story that works most effectively within a fully fledged superhero continuity like the Marvel Universe.  After all, traditionally, superheroes are supposed to be wish fulfilment fantasies.  But Gravity isn't even fulfilling his own wishes, let alone those of his readers.  He's a struggling minor superhero trying to get noticed - the sort of thing that only really makes sense if there's a bunch of big names out there who've already hogged all the limelight.  They don't even have to appear; it's enough to know that they're out there.  This is a universe where somebody with actual superpowers can embark on a career as a superhero, and nobody notices.

Of course, there's a tricky balancing act here.  Greg has to be enough of a loser to make the idea work, without us losing sympathy for him.  And there needs to be a sense that all the really important stuff is going on elsewhere, while still making us feel that we're seeing something interesting.  McKeever nails both of those.  The key is to make sure that Greg doesn't look like a fundamental, chronic no-hoper.  If Mark Millar was doing this story... well, you'd get Ultimate Defenders, who are fine for a one issue gag, but would be unreadably snide and depressing as title characters.

Instead, McKeever and Norton make sure that Greg is a character we can root for.  Partly that's simply a matter of making him likeable, but he's not just a loveable clown.  He's got passable (if generic) superpowers, and his pratfalls are due to naivety and inexperience rather than idiocy.  We're left with the belief that he's going to get better, and we'll get to watch it happen.  It's sweet.

Mike Norton worked with Sean McKeever before on The Waiting Place, and he's a good match for this material.  It's a character-based comedy drama rather than a "proper" superhero story, and this sort of thing depends on an artist whose characters can really act.  Norton's can.  He does a good costume design for Greg, too - it's not the most original design in the world, but then it shouldn't be, because Greg is deliberately trying to look like a superhero.  It's in character and retro without being too generic.

A very promising first issue.  If recent history is anything to go by, it'll sell dismally.  But please, prove me wrong, because I really liked it.

Rating: A

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