After grumbling about last week's Claws #1, which was also written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, I was bracing myself to dislike Heroes for Hire #1 as well.  But this one's really not bad.

The book certainly faces an uphill struggle.  It has to revive a concept which has only been marginally successful in the last 20 years or so, and it has to do it without any of the usual main characters.  Specifically, there's no Power Man or Iron Fist.  Instead, it follows on from the Daughters of the Dragon miniseries earlier this year, which was solid enough, but hardly set the charts alight.

It's also launching with a Civil War crossover storyline - good for sales in the short term, but it leaves me uncertain quite what the book is really about.  In this storyline, they're simply an independent group of heroes who have registered and are being paid by the government to hunt down the bad guys.  So they're not really for hire at all, nor are they noticeably any sort of detective agency. 

To be fair, given the dodgy sales on the miniseries, they really had little choice but to use the big crossover event as a springboard.  But this really does come across as the first issue of "eight random characters fighting people you've never heard of."  Somebody here really loves their obscure villains - there's even a major role for Vienna, a character with a grand total of three previous appearances, all in the period 1983-4.  You really can't get much less known than that.

But for all that, the book has an undeniable charm.  The creators are evidently having fun, and despite some irritatingly gratuitous cheesecake, Billy Tucci's art is generally pretty easy on the eye.  It should probably appeal to a core audience of traditionalists who like seeing old and underused characters, with the flip attitude possibly catching a few people beyond that.

Overall, it's really quite good at what it does, and a pleasant enough way to pass the time.  It certainly has a clear style of its own, which is fortunate given that the concept is decidedly woolly.  But I really can't see it being a sales success. 

Let's face it, it's a sequel to a miniseries that bombed, from writers with a track record of respectful reviews and fairly low sales, featuring what seems to be an utterly random assembly of very minor characters.  (Paladin?  Orka the Killer Whale, for heaven's sake?)   If this actually does work, it'll be proof of the power of Civil War to attract readers - and, of course, the ability of the creative team to keep them.  It might happen.  But I wouldn't put money on it.

Enjoyable enough, though, and even if the concept is horrendously vague, the book's personality is still fairly well defined.

Rating: B

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