What would it be like to raise a kid with super powers?

Huge thanks to my friend Greg Manuel for bringing this to my attention! 

One of my favorite things about writing for Critical Blast is that we spend a lot of time looking into indy comics.  There are plenty of sites where you can get your Marvel and DC fix, but at Critical Blast, we always want to find something new to talk about.  And that is what brought us to RAISING DION.

From Fusion:

In the comic book Raising Dion, Nicole, a widowed, black single mother, dedicates her energy to raising and chronicling the life of her son, Dion, a seven-year-old boy with a bevy of inexplicable superpowers...

Artist Jason Piperberg, "“Traditionally in comics and really most stories, the protagonist is the one with the powers. You see the world through the eyes of the character with all the abilities usually because they are immediately the most exciting and/or interesting person in the story.”

Writer Dennis Liu, "Nicoleis equal parts Martha Kent and Alfred Pennyworth, the adults responsible for raising Superman and Batman. If these key parental figures did not raise these superheroes correctly, then who knows what Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne would have become? Parents instill a value system.”

Source: Fusion

Commentary: I was pretty much hooked as soon as I started watching the teaser trailer.  It’s an idea I’ve never really seen done before, and the teaser really shows the potential here for something new and fresh.  The trailer is funny and charming.  The perfect way to introduce us to the characters and story.  Plus the effects are damn cool for something that had to be real shoestring budget:

I also like that they made the first issue available free digitally.  The first issue is basically the first part of an origin story.  We find out about Dion and his mother, and the rest of the story fills in the backstory about his father, giving us a sense of where Dion's powers came from.  

In the modern comic way, it takes a story that probably would have been told in a handful of pages to spread it over multiple issues.  But what’s here is really good, though it does feel like it ends just as the story is getting good.  The dialogue feels real, and the characters have a ton of personality.  I also thought the art was solid.  I would definitely be willing to pay for more issues of this series.

Liu and Piperberg seem to be relative newcomers to making their own comics, but I love their energy and ideas here.  I wish them nothing but success with RAISING DION! I can easily see this as a TV series or animated series down the line.