One Star Squadron

One-Star Squadron by Mark Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One-Star Squadron collects issues #1-5 of One-Star Squadron.

I'm on board with anything Mark Russell does at this point and the super heroes in a gig economy idea was interesting so I snapped this up.

Much like most of Mark Russell's work, this was bleak, depressing, and hilarious. Red Tornado is the manager of Heros4U, a group of heroes for pay centered around the Heros4U phone app. Power Girl is angling for his job and the board of directors has their own agenda. C and D listers like Flying Fox, The Heckler, and GI Robot also appear.

Steve Leiber's art is minimalist, expressive, and perfect for a human level story like this. Russell skews gig economy, office politics, and corporate greed in this one. It's just as depressing as it sounds and I loved it. Russell uses the super hero lens to explore ethics, philosophy, and life in general and serves up some zingers while he's at it.

I don't really have a problem with it but some heroes aren't portrayed as they normally are since it's not in continuity but I could see how some people would have that issue. I expect it does share continuity with Russell's other DC books though, specifically Wonder Twins.

Four out of five stars.

View all my reviews