Review by Frank Plowright

E-Ratic is Oliver Lief, a new superhero with vague, but powerful electricity-connected powers, yet with the limitation of only being able to use them for ten minutes at a time, then not again for 24 hours. After his activities in E-Ratic a government agent names him a menace and intends to track him down.

Kaare Andrews efficiently recaps the state of play regarding cast and subplots over the opening pages, and introduces a couple of new problems. Princess Ianna remains all the way through, while Oliver being unable to power up since a massive energy burst ending the previous story is a poor moment of tension that doesn’t ring true. It’s about the only plotting mistake Andrews makes in a story rectifying the accumulated minor problems of the first outing. This time there’s adequate space for everyone, subplots ebb and flow more naturally, and Oliver’s school dramas are captivating. Perhaps it might be felt that there’s not enough of him as a superhero, but his powers are time-limited. Another minor irritation is the coyness about low level swearing. “Shit” is replaced with “ship”, which is feeble.

Towering over everything is Andrews the artist, incredible, adaptable and with a great intuition for effective storytelling. In some superhero comics the artist can’t really be bothered with scenes of ordinary people and they lack the sparkle of the superhero action, but Andrews brings both to life with equal diligence and dynamism. There’s not a page here that doesn’t look stunning.

Once again Oliver’s mother and her problems are lost in the mix, but otherwise plots pull together convincingly to form a fun teenage superhero title. Whether E-Ratic was always intended to finish here or whether it was determined by sales, it’s a shame there’s been nothing new in over two years, but Recharged is worth anyone’s time.