Review by Frank Plowright

Matt Kindt has written characters who’re near enough superheroes before, but never the out and out mainstream superhero, and The Hero Trade might explain why. It’s a look at a world with superheroes, but only rarely at the superheroes themselves. There is precedent for that approach, but don’t come here expecting the cosy charm of Astro City. Oh no, Kindt has a very nasty turn of mind.

It’s exemplified by the opening story, which has someone touring around assorted customers selling the body parts of dead hero Captain Fabulous. David Lapham draws the primitive surgery with a gruesome relish as Kindt explains how much those parts are worth and why. Eight unsettling pages conclude with the most disturbing page of all. If the innovative look at the world of superheroes and the horror of it all wasn’t enough, in his notes at the end Kindt also explains a subtext. It’s not greatly obvious, but certainly there, and subsequent stories (although not all) continue the theme. It’s an intelligent exorcism of some bad experiences.

The art being in black and white and drawn to a strict grid along with the parade of criminal losers introduced echoes Lapham’s solo Stray Bullets, a deliberate choice immediately connecting with fans of crime drama. Lapham is an exemplary storyteller with years of experience and ensures both clues and emphasis are well placed, yet his character designs aren’t intended to be comforting. There’s something troubling about the superheroes and the remorseless character seen in the first chapter, and again toward the end, despite his being a normal, even good-looking guy.

Ideas are strong throughout, with Kindt heading wherever he wants in producing fragmented glimpses of an underbelly, sometimes returning to the scene of the crime and sometimes not. The centrepiece is two connected chapters showing a sequence of events from two different viewpoints, with what seems the perfect heist featuring a major unforeseen problem. It also connects with the underlying theme of the opening story.

The Hero Trade is slick, dark, surprising and rewarding. And to think the original plan wasn’t to release a paperback.