The World’s Strongest

The World’s Strongest debuts on Wednesday as one of Action Lab’s “digital-first” (which may or may not mean it ever comes to print) titles. It’s $3 for 24 pages, which makes it a short read, but it touches on some insightful points. It also widens the superhero genre from its traditional focus, both in its black female hero and in the concerns it addresses.

It’s written by Juan Ponce with art by Matthew Gallman, colors by Jon Yuen, and the cover below by Beverly Johnson.

Black Swan, aka Samantha Pierce, has to balance her family and an annoying job (with a boss who overlooks her) with fighting robots. The art is simple and cartoony, which gives it a directness I appreciated. We’ve all seen so many of these genre works that we don’t need the detail of the fights to know what’s going on.

This wasn’t about fetishizing punching, but diving a bit deeper into the genre than we usually see by focusing on the choices Samantha makes and what it costs her. Her determination is inspiring.

This is a one-shot, but I’d like to see more with the characters. Here are some preview pages. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)