The Intimates

(WildStorm, 2005)
™ and © WildStorm, an imprint of DC Comics

The comic book super–hero has long been a symbol of teen angst and alienation. The Intimates makes that relationship explicit, and delves into it with ironic detachment and winking self–awareness.

Super–powered teenagers aspiring to careers as super–heroes attend a mountain–top boarding school called the Seminary where they study core subjects like Secret Identity, “NuPhysics”, and “Connectivity.” The narrative revolves around life at this super–hero Hogwarts where the teaching staff are retired heroes and the students exchange gossip and misbehave.

The first issue introduces Destra the bored fashion plate, Punchy the runty spaz, Vee the invisible fat girl, Duke the sensitive brute, and precocious Sykes whose head is enveloped in a metamorphic red “telechronic null–field”.

Free form, angular line continuity frames colorful illustration and wordy panels. Preponderant narration dressed up in the vernacular of teen magazines performs the function of the omniscient voice by setting the scene, explaining what’s what and offering useful advice like, “Never hold hands with a strange alien.”

— Leland Burrill

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