Leaving Megalopolis Vol 1

When the caped heroes of the world’s safest city inexplicably turn into homicidal maniacs, no one is safe. The only rational thing to do is to get the hell out of town. If only it were that easy. A small group of terrified survivors make a desperate run for the city limits, chased by unspeakable evil!

Leaving Megalopolis vol. 1 is the new Kickstarter initiated graphic novel from Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore.  In it, we find the once peaceful city of Megalopolis now torn asunder by the very heroes that once protected it.  Amidst the chaos stands a lone officer named Mina, who winds up with a group of followers, despite her best efforts to deter them.  As they journey through the ruins of the city, trying to find a way out, they soon discover that the deranged heroes aren’t the only monsters prowling around.  An interesting ‘what if?’ scenario, that makes one wonder how safe everyone would be if heroes protected their city.  I mean what could we really do against someone powerful enough to lift a building, or run at super-speeds?  Very little, let me tell you.  However, this story isn’t entirely about the superhero doomsday scenario, it’s about Mina’s struggle with her past and trying to cope with all of the emotional pain she had to endure, a pain that’s only exacerbated by the former heroes terrorizing the city.

While reading this, there were a couple of things that I wasn’t a fan of.  For starters, when the scene would suddenly shift back to young Mina, there wasn’t any type of indicator as to the time travel.  One panel, Mina and her group would be on the run from a hero, and the next she’s a young girl dealing with her grandma.  It wouldn’t be necessary for every flashback, but for the first one at least would have been helpful.  And, yes I understand that people should be able to figure it out, but the sudden scene change threw me off a bit.  Also, Mina seemed a little hollow to me.  I get that she had quite a few crappy things happen to her, but I just couldn’t really empathize with a character whose only emotion was “pissed off”.  One would think that because of her past, she’d be more willing to stymy a bad situation for others, but maybe that’s just me and I’m looking at this the wrong way.  It’s a decent read however, and shouldn’t be overlooked.  Gail works her magic and paints a very vivid look at the horrors of heroes gone bad.  Jim lends his talents to the artwork which gives the book a nice balance.  My only question at the moment would be, what happened to all of the super-villains?  Given that this is only volume one, we’ll probably learn all of that when the next volume hits shelves.

So, if you’re a Gail Simone fan, or just love a good doomsday scenario, I would definitely recommend Leaving Megalopolis vol. 1 to you.  The characters have heart (most of them at least) and there’s enough violence to satisfy anyone’s bloodlust.  If it made it through Kickstarter, it must be hot stuff.  For more info on where to find this book, visit the Dark Horse website, or the Dark Horse Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.