Review: Andy Starboy
There's a reason for that. In this version of history the flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 was just the beginning of a series of spacecraft impacts over the decades. All of the ships were unoccupied. Humanity has benefitted from reverse-engineering the alien technology, but there was also a downside...
Radiation from the ships caused people nearby to mutate. Some of these "nu-breeds" like Andy, have super powers. The radiation also mutated wild animals, some of which became very dangerous, such as the giant lizard we see Andy battling in the opening sequence (a nice little nod to the Godzilla legend).
This is not just a tale of great responsibility coming with great power, however. Andy is the star of his own reality show in which he basically shows off his fighting skills against the monstrosities that now stalk the Earth.
It's made him a media star (hence the name?) among all the cool kids at school, who are all keen to be seen hanging out with him. This includes guys who used to beat him up and girls who used to call him a freak. In a quiet moment he reflects on the superficial nature of his success.
Other nu-breeds still suffer persecution, however, a situation which leads to a sudden tragedy...
Andy Starboy is written by Daniel D. Calvo and drawn by Leandro Meneses and delves into the complex challenges of those who are born different and hated by the majority, yet end up protecting those same people from danger. As in The X-Men, this is a handy metaphor for real world prejudice and discrimination (the parallel here being racism against Latinos). The art is sharp and vibrant with plenty of action scenes and the story is about more than just boy-meets-monster-and-kicks-monster's-ass...
Here we explore another angle, which makes for a more interesting spin on the sci-fi standard: we take the next logical step of asking what would be the real-world consequences of all these fantastical elements? Do super powers alone make you a hero... or a villain? For everyone else there are a million shades of grey between those two extremes, why should the nu-breeds be any less complex?
What if the 'villain' is more of a victim?
What if the 'hero' makes a terrible mistake?
Andy Starboy on Koncret Comics Print / Digital version
Zak Webber
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