Stardust Kid

(Image, 2005-2008)
™ and © 2005 J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog

J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog are back with another take on the general themes of their previous effort, Abadazad, which fell victim to the CrossGen implosion. While mining similar territory, The Stardust Kid departs sufficiently to hold up on its own rather than coming across as a simple retread.

This time, the protagonist is a boy, 12-year-old Cody DiMaro, who has developed a deep friendship with another boy, Paul Brightfield. Cody’s the only one who knows that Paul really isn’t human, but the last of the Old Ones, and an ancient elemental being who lives in a magical grove beneath a nearby park. But both Cody and Paul are about to undergo significant changes. For Cody, it’s adolescence. For Paul, it’s something far more sinister, which also threatens to upend Cody’s world.

Much of the backstory here is derivative: the idea of Paul as the last of a race that existed from a magical time before “the world changed,” his ability to shape-shift, the arrival of his other evil half. Yet, Paul has something intriguing boiling just beneath the surface, and Cody, too, is a character with depth. And, as always, Ploog’s art is a joy to behold—in the final analysis, probably the best thing about The Stardust Kid.

— Timothy J. Wood

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