COMICS IN THE CAMPER: YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE PART 2

 

We continue with our little retrospective on DC’s mid 90s superhero romance series Young Heroes In Love. Last time we took a look at what was going on in the world of comics when Young Heroes was released and took a look at the first issue. This week, we’re going to take a look at issues two and three. When we last left our young heroes, team leader Hard Drive was sharing a bit of post coital bliss with Monster Girl. Issue two opens with Thunderhead and Bonfire out on patrol.

 

As we saw in issue one, Thunderhead has a bit of a crush on Bonfire. The two do a little flirting and Bonfire tries to get the super strong and seemingly indestructible Thunderhead to jump off a five story building as a demonstration of his powers. Later, at the Young Heroes HQ, the team is still getting used to their new home. Hard Drive is anxious to get the team into an adventure as soon as possible. Monster Girl on the other hand wants to spend more time training the team and get a feel for each others powers. The teleported Off Ramp is keeping an eye on the news for any crimes. Frostbite confronts Bonfire about the feelings that seemed to stir between them in issue one and is confused that Bonfire seems to have cooled off a bit with regards to the strange attraction for each other that their opposing powers seem to have inflamed.



 

The tiny sized Junior has been doing a little spying and sees that Hard Drive and Monster Girl have become romantically attached and is concerned about the situation. He tries to tell Frostbite and Bonfire about it but Hard Drive shows up. He takes Junior aside and gives him one of his motivational speeches that causes Junior to forget what he saw. It doesn’t take long before Hard Drive gets his wish for action. Seems there’s a giant Mummy terrorizing a local army base. Thunderhead, Bonfire and Monster Girl try and fail to stop the Mummy but Hard Drive seems to dispatch the creature with a single telekinetic mind blast. Hard Drive does a little schmoozing with the reporters as the other Young Heroes excitably talk about their first adventure.

 

 
Issue three opens with a funny single page splash showing Frostbite and Thunderhead hanging the sword of the giant mummy that they dispatched in issue two as Bonfire admires their respective backsides. The series again concentrates more on conversation than battles as the Young Heroes discuss subjects like the mysterious mummy they just fought, which superheroes have the best costumes, what’s the deal with blue Superman’s powers and other random topics. Meanwhile, in the gym, Frostbite is still upset at the way Bonfire seemed attracted to him and then turned her affections to Thunderhead. He takes out his frustrations by constructing a giant ice sculpture. Hard Drive tells the others his concerns that Frostbite might be feeling alienated and lonely and takes them to see the ice sculpture. But as Bonfire discovers, this isn’t just any ice sculpture. It contains a hidden message that only she can read by accessing one of her abilities, the power to see strange temperature patterns. An ability that she shares with Frostbite.

 
Before Bonfire can investigate this revelation more closely, the team discovers that the mysterious Mummy has turned up again to attack the same army base. When they arrive they are happily surprised to see Superman battling the giant mummy. They lend a hand but it’s Frostbite who ends up incapacitating the Mummy by freezing it solid. This keeps the Mummy from escaping into another dimension which is how it escaped the unwitting Young Heroes during their last confrontation. In the aftermath of the battle, the star struck Young Heroes gather around Superman. Hard Drive asks Superman to join their team. Superman kindly declines due to other responsibilities. Hard Drive presses the issue. But when Superman declines again, Hard Drive not only loses his temper but bursts into tears and runs away. The other Young Heroes are shocked by the behavior of their usually composed team mate. All of them except Monster Girl who has a devious smile on her face.

As in issue one, issue two and three have enjoyable writing by Dan raspier and wonderfully whimsical art by Dev Madan on pencils and Keith Champagne on inks. Madan has such a great spirit of fun. These characters are just a joy to look at and Madan and Raspler are able to make each of them leap off the page. Issues 2 and 3 continues with the theme of showing what young, impressionable heroes do on their off hours which is to gab about their favorite subject--superheroes. Unlike the majority of comics of the day, Young Heroes In Love was definitely not grim and gritty. These are fun, light hearted comics with characters who are fun to look at and listen to.

In the back of issues 2 and 3 we get pictures of some of the team members along with an odd little personalized poem for each. For example, under Frostbite we get “Not your basic lean and mean, not your basic vanilla ice cream, not your basic polar extreme, not your basic metagene” Apparently this was simply filler while waiting for the letters section to kick in. But the editors promise to give the readers a letters section for issue 4.

Next week we’ll take a look at issues 4 and 5.