A mixed martial arts destiny!
Creative Staff:
Story: Kevin Eastman, Ian Parker, Mark Mastrandrea, Rick Hoskin
Art: Renalto Rei
Colors: Ross Campbell
What They Say:
A middle school student and wrestling star, raised by his strict grandfather, finds himself on an epic journey to meet his true destiny when he is recruited to lead a super-powered team of mixed martial artists known as the Cage Heroes! Thirteen year-old Ryder Stone must meet the challenge to lead a group of young talented MMA fighters from across the globe, and still maintain his grade point average. Trained in their own unique martial art discipline, all connected by a secret past, this new team will have to dig deep with themselves to protect the world from an evil network known as the Shadow Empire.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Dynamite’s newest series is one that plays to an area that certainly has some crossover appeal, though that’s more in the entertainment wrestling industry. Yet the potential to appeal is certainly there because there are few characters overall that get involved in actual wrestling, which makes for a good bit of background and human character elements to work with. Coming from an idea by Kevin Eastman, Ian Parker and Mark Mastranda, Cage Hero is scripted by Rik Hoskin and features some pretty solid artwork from Renalto Rei. With as many people involved in the story side of it, it’s a surprise that the book doesn’t crash earlier than the final act considering how many ideas were likely at play in putting it all together.
The series focuses on fourteen year old middle school student Ryder, an army brat that has transferred into six or so schools so far and is your standard outsider, unable to fit into the existing dynamics and make friends. His mother is long gone and his father is deployed for so long and so often that he rarely hears from him. His only family is his grandfather that lives with him and takes care of him, but he’s got his dark secret past that has him being even more gruff than you’d normally get from the usual presentation of a Vietnam Vet grandpa at this stage. Ryder comes across as well as he can here considering what’s thrown at him and you get your basic connections as there’s a girl that’s kind of into him, if not for the super-jock that she’s involved with, and at least one teacher that looks out for him. if not for his wrestling, he’d probably have little else besides studies.
There’s a good bit to like with the school setting though as the script makes him sympathetic and accessible and Rei’s artwork is definitely solid, probably the best part of the book overall. Where things get interesting before cratering is that during his wrestling match, Ryder is suddenly able to see slightly into the future and read his opponents moves. That allows him to win and move on to the next level but it also attracts the attention of a mysterious man in standard flasher gear. When circumstances later put the two of them together again, said stranger reveals that he’s actually Doc Proton, a found member of the Legion of Cage Heroes, “an elite group of martial art military fighters with enhanced abilities chosen to protect the Earth from the evil shadow empire.”
That’s the second to last page and it gets worse on the last with what it does, which is essentially present every all too familiar anime/manga cliche done up in elementary school style combined with wrestling costume designs and the like. You can so utterly and easily see where it’s going to go that it’s just awful, especially after the largely strong start that it got. It’s not so much the concept itself but the naming and execution of it that just boggles, as the costume aren’t bad in a kind of old school sense and the level of what’s going to happen plays into the familiar. But it’s just so utterly hackneyed that I felt like I was reading an 80’s book all over again and remembering why I was glad we don’t really have 80’s books for the most part anymore.
In Summary:
Throughout the bulk of this first issue I was coming away with a pretty impressed view of things and thinking that even with the wrestling angle, not a favorite of mine, that it could be a pretty good coming of age with some heroics elements mixed in kind of series.But it ends up going so over the top that it just took me out of the book completely and made it so that I didn’t even want to finish it. It just goes into such awful territory that I doubt I’ll go after the second issue to see if it can redeem itself. There’s a good story to be had here and some great artwork, but the trappings brought in at the end just completely kills my interest in it unfortunately.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: November 4th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
