The Young Offenders are a group of kids with strange abilities (possibly the result of some government experimentation) living in a run-down ghetto, doing their best to improve their surroundings in whatever fashion they can. In doing so, they run afoul of city planners, politicians, the local police and even those they are trying to protect.
Though it features all the classic trappings of a superhero comic, this book is anything but. True, there are young adults with super powers fighting for justice in a world that doesn’t understand them, but it isn’t as simple as “There’s a bank robber, let’s punch him out!” – this is a very real world with very real consequences for everyone involved and it isn’t easy.
The Good
To put it simply, it just feels right. It feels true, if that makes any sense. Savage Henry Lee writes with the educated voice of someone who has been there and seen it and is none too pleased. There is a real sense of urgency to his writing that demands you pay attention.
There have been a lot of comics featuring “superheroes in a real world setting”, but the majority of them just end up being a darker or more violent reflection of something we’ve seen a million times before. While this comic does feature fantastic powers and clever code names, it feels a lot more real than many other comics with a so-called “real world approach”. The characters depicted in The Young Offenders don’t just show up to stop a crime and then sit back resting on their laurels with a smug sense of superiority and a tight-fitting costume under their clothes. In fact, there are no costumes or masks at all!
These characters understand (or at least try to understand) the nature of violence and how it affects the world around them. They’re not simply fighting evil; they’re fighting a corrupt system that oftentimes seems to exist for the purpose of allowing evil to thrive. Though they know they’re doing right, they also know that they may very well be contributing to the problem with their acts. There are physical and emotional consequences to their actions and it isn’t as cut and dried as “We gotta stop the bad guys” and then a few heads are bashed in.
The book opens with the Offenders protecting some squatters from being evicted by the police. It’s an act of justice that defies the law – and in the end, rather than being praised, they find themselves the subject of scorn from people who “didn’t ask for your help”. And Spider-Man thinks he has problems!
On the visual side of things, Peter Severinson is a master of negative space. I don’t think I quite have the vocabulary to describe his style, but it’s sort of like old-school Eastman and Laird Ninja Turtles mixed with Frank Miller’s Sin City. It’s all black and white and packs a powerful punch. He handles the fight scenes well and the shots of the run down city streets and the people who inhabit them are equally as compelling. The raw emotion of his artwork matches the lyrical intensity of Savage Henry’s script.
The Bad
I really hate reading comics on a computer screen. It’s not really the fault of the people who made this book and to be totally honest, it actually reads quite well on the small screen. It almost looks as though Severinson planned on his work being viewed this way and adjusted accordingly. So is it really a “bad”? Naw… it’s just me. But I still hate reading comics on a computer screen. Why can’t they just make a computer screen that’s shaped like a comic book?
Cover artwork to THE YOUNG OFFENDERS by Peter Severinson
The Bottom Line
The Young Offenders comes with a high recommendation. It’s always exciting to read a comic that you know is a labor of love, and it’s very clear that the folks behind this project feel very strongly about it. The fact that they’re offering it for free on their website speaks volumes toward this.
The Young Offenders is a grim n’ gritty book that has a sense of hope despite the desperate circumstances depicted within. It’s a message book that beats you over the head with knowledge rather than a moralizing heavy hand. It’s a modern day reinterpretation of classic superhero tropes. While it’s more than a bit presumptuous to put him on the same pedestal, the writer of The Young Offenders does have something in common with the man who shares his pseudonymic last name: he’s writing superhero books the way he wants to see them written, not the way we’re told they should be.
You can find more information about The Young Offenders on their website as well as on Myebook.com and Facebook.
It's weirdly and wonderfully appropriate that this review went up today, on Guy Fawkes Day, since Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" was one of the major influences on The Young Offenders!
Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Because that's the day we're coming to kick your f*cking door down!
Very interesting. I am off to read Young Offenders now, I hope it lives up to this review. In a world in which schools have been replaced by pop culture media as the major socializer it is heartening to read of works such as Young Offenders. I can only hope that young folks hoping to teach to "change the world" realize they can be just as powerful with a creative mind and a pen, pencil and computer as in front of the classroom, perhaps more so.
Regarding a computer shaped like a comic book, it probably won't be too long before digital media replaces all print media, so you may be forced to adapt! Which is another thing interesting about this work (YO) being placed online, it seems to be in touch with current flows of culture and technology (if I'm not reading into it too much), and recognizes aspects of what I've mentioned above. As political cartoonists find their media (and sources of funding) waning with the demise of the printed newspaper, perhaps it is only logical that the comic industry merge with the digital and at least dip a foot into the immateria that is the intrawebs. I hope that socially responsible works as YO appears to be will manage to be at the forefront of any innovation. It's great to learn.
Before I jump in the deep end of my feelings for what I just read, I'm going to ask a question. I'm not expecting an honest answer, but I feel like I ought to give the chance to provide one. Just so I know how deep I can expect the BS to get. I'm going to ask this and I want people to try to answer honestly.
How much of this review was actually written by Savage Henry Lee? See, I've read the Young Offenders, so I know that the boy isn't really capable of being intelligent or subtle in his writing. This review suffers from the same problem. It's paragraphs of praise for the writer, a quick shout-out to the artist, a negative point that's mindblowingly irrelevant, and then a quick wrap-up blowjob for the writer again. Now, knowing that this is also the sort of sledgehammer fraud that I've come to expect from Savage Henry Lee, and taking into account that he used to be one of your bloggers here before the apathy and disdain of an audience that he couldn't make up drove him away, I have to wonder what really went down here. Did he write this review and have his people here put it up? Did he "edit" the piece before it went up?
If y'all can answer that with any sort of honesty, I'll know how to proceed.
I always liked his blogging. It was always interesting... fan boys in the squared circle of geekdom fighting for the virtue of the trivial. Those were the days! Good times. Good times.
I started reading the Young Offenders like a year ago or so ago, when I was the PsychoBoy. I'm glad to hear it's complete now. I'll have to check it out.
escuelasecreta - I'm pretty much thinking the same thing you are. Print media gives way to digital and yeah, I don't think it's too far off to assume that the creators of YO are well aware of this. And kudos to you for making a comparision I failed to make in my review: these folks are political cartoonists. Though they aren't using the traditional one-frame format seen in the Wall Street Journal, the objective is the same. I hope that you enjoy YO as much as I did.
Cosmique - I think it's far from finished... but there's a lot more of it than there was a year or so ago!
AceOfSpades - honest answer... you got me. I am actually Savage Henry Lee. Actually, 100% of Mania's output comes from SHL. Okay, total honesty: SHL (me) created Mania over a decade ago and then eventually started blogging for Comics2Film only to purchase C2F and absorb it into Mania. He... I mean "I" then assumed several secret identities (including different styles of writing) in order to throw off all but the most astute readers. I am also responsible for Aint it Cool News, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources and the Huffington Post. All of it... 100% written by my hand. Honestly, the internet (and most media in the United States) is controlled by Savage Henry Lee and has been for quite some time.
Yes, I post glowing reviews for Geoff Johns' Green Lantern as "Chad Derdowski" only to sign in as "savagelee" and lambaste myself for giving praise to such pedestrian material. It's all part of the ruse... a ruse so deep, it goes back to the early days of the United States. A ruse that has been concocted by the Freemasons, working in conjunction with the Secret Government, Aliens and L. Ron Hubbard. If you look closely at the Zapruder Tapes... over there on the grassy knoll, you'll find Savage Henry Lee Harvey Oswald.
But you figured all that out a long time ago, didn't you, you clever devil?
Brother, you could have saved yourself a lot of time if you'd just said 'I'm going to use lame humor to cover up my lack of integrity in this situation'.
Wow, did AceofSpades get dumped by SHL at some point? I'm always curious about those who can say "that art sucks" with such a sense of self importance. You may not like something, but there is something suspicious inherent in frontal attacks on the legitimacy of any artform. A lot of anger issues over a thumb's down is a sign of an interesting backstory. Might I ask, AOS, are you perhaps a right winger who is offended by the progressive bent of the content of YO? It seems you have some deep seeded issues regarding the comic that may be rooted not in the comic itself nor its review, but a profound disagreement with the political intent? Not that YO is a "leftist" work, but more of a common sensical piece that delves into the complexities of rebellion/revolution.
While the content may be a blunt instrument at times, it is good to see such social topics addressed in general, and a heated "I hate this" tells more about the reviewer than the reviewed in most cases. Regardless, you are either a crusading ether-critic fighting for his own brand of art justice or a dumped upon former partner.
An aside, I found the beginning dilemma in YO, in which the kids are dealing with how they are accepted/rejected by the neighborhood to be a typical problem that comes up in revolutionary/guerrilla situations in which the militant force fighting for the oppressed have to find a way to ingratiate themselves to the community in which ultimately the fighting force must look to for protection and supplies.
We can get into my feelings about the Young Offenders if you want. I didn't say much about the actual comic at all. The closest I came was when I said that I found Savage Henry's writing to be lacking intelligence or subtlety, and that goes for almost every word I've seen the boy type. Not just the Young Offenders. You can make all the assumptions you want about the hows and whys of my feelings towards the comic, but it doesn't amount to much. I've said scarcely a word about the thing. You're just blind guessing, son.
If you're finding contempt in my words, it's towards the review. I promise. I've been reading comics since I was a shorty. Even the ones I love the most have some fault to be found in them. Chad either has no objectivity as a reviewer period or he has no objectivity when it comes to the work of Savage Henry Lee. The review barely mentions the art, has nothing negative to say about the writing, and stumbles trying to find something negative to say about the comic at all. What the hell is that? Since this review wasn't so much positive as it was an offer to have Savage Henry's baby and some of us remember Savage Henry's spectacular career as a Comics2Film blogger, I think it's pretty fair to ask if there's a conflict of interest at play here. Are you boys looking to be serious comics journalists and reviewers or am I just reading one hand sucking off the other here?
Maybe later we can get into why this art sucks. Right now, I'm sort of focused on why this review sucks and might be completely corrupt. A dude who can put such alleged passion for justice and raise such stirring questions about the nature of good and evil in his work probably ought to no better than to have his buddies write him a blowjob review and try to pass it off as legit. S'all I'm saying, people, and I haven't heard anything yet to tell me that this ain't the case.
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It's weirdly and wonderfully appropriate that this review went up today, on Guy Fawkes Day, since Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" was one of the major influences on The Young Offenders!
Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Because that's the day we're coming to kick your f*cking door down!