Boy Meets Hero
Everything by: Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia
Published by: Bruno Gmunder and boymeetshero.com
Reviewed by: Brian Andersen

If you are anything like me you are still totally lamenting the ridiculous demise of Peter Parker and Mary Jane's marriage. Besides Superman and Lois, and Reed and Sue, Peter and MJ were one of the rare comic couples who seemed to stand the test of time. For me one of the best aspects of the comics from the 70's and early 80's came from the frothy focus on the twisty-turny romantic life of our beloved heroes. I always loved when the hero had to struggle to balance his chaotic love life with the latest evil dude/dudette. Sadly most of the heroic comics today seem woefully lacking in the love-dovey department, which, like Spidey and MJ, I also miss.

Happily romance is not all dead in our modern grim and gritty comic world thanks to the fantastically terrific Boy Meets Hero. Created, written, drawn, colored and lettered with aplomb by real life dynamic duo Chayne Avery and Russell Garcia, Boy Meets Hero happily heralds back to those awesome days of old where the super character's dating life and romantic foibles were just as exciting as the latest battle with any old arch supervillain. Originally created as a very successful online comic series, Boy Meets Hero has graduated to the big time with a handsome hardcover trade paperback collecting the entire first run of stories. Boy Meets Hero is awesomely good, not only for its classic storytelling, but also because the main protagonists of the book are two men, two realistically in love gay men. Yup, that's right. Gay. Men. In love.

The great thing about this colorful series is that at its heart it's a pure, traditional superhero love story - with all the capes, superpowers, colorful bad guys, snappy banter, purposely cheesy humor - only (on occasion) it also has some hot man-on-man sexy time. Thankfully though, for those a tad squeamish by the prospect of comic booky man-to-man tenderness can rest assured that the gay make-out scenes (and sometimes a bit more) aren't the main drive of the story, nor are they pornographic. They steamy scenes are just a small part of this whimsical series, where the whole gay "thing" isn't a sensationalized tool to sell this book; there aren't any political messages here. The only message in this book is to dive right in and enjoy a tale 'bout a superhero and the boy who loves him.

This first collection of Boy Meets Hero is the coming out story of Blue Comet - one of the premier heroes amongst a sea of heroes - as he grows to accept and love who he is and who he happens to be in love with. Blue Comet, he of the glowing fire hair, must stand up to the superhero agency, who represent all the heroes, and their insistence on keeping up the pretense of a more than platonic relationship with his equally heroic partner, Sunstar. The ruse of the story? Blue Comet is in fact dating Sunstar's cute-y pie younger brother.

I realized I might have lost more than a few of you at the mention of there being a 'gay love story' aspect of this comic, or perhaps I lost you at the occasional man-on-man kissie-kissie moments, but to dismiss this series based on the gender of the two couples is to dismiss a truly moving, totally enjoyable, utterly winning series by two indie comic creators who have achieved something truly inspiring; a superheroic love story that knows no boundaries.