"Young Protectors" by Alex Woolfson

[Steven Adamson]

First the link to check it out: http://webcomics.yao...ete_title_page/

Prologue and chapter one posted so far.

If you need convincing, here's a few words to sell it.

Red Hot is a teen superhero with fans and a team of superfriends. One day he covertly decides to check out a gay bar for the first time and bumps into the most dangerous supervillian in the world.

Will the villain out him? Blackmail him? Just try to kill him?

What I like about this book is it skips over origins. Red Hot is already established and so is his team. The heroes and villains all know each other, so there's no 'setting up'. It gets right to the part where the villain and hero accidentally meet. Or was it accidental? Maybe the villain is just being a villain.

There's good ambiguity here. We meet villains with principles and hero vigilantes who endanger innocents. The strong characters are a big part of this book, especially the interaction between the two leads. They have that chemistry that is required to accept that they'd act the way they act.

Woolfson is a good writer, whose dialogue is natural and develops the story, though he can be over wordy and pace things too slowly. The art is by a bona fide comic artist, so it's good and even creative at times with the angles.

My only real problem is that with the once a week update schedule, this story looks like it'll take forever to reach the end.

Also, Woolfson has his second comic available at the site. It's called Artifice and is actually complete, with more of a short story feel.

Deacon, the lead in Artifice, has actually been named #34 sexiest guy in comics apparently. I'm not as impressed with Artifice because both characters seemed flatter to me and didn't seem to click in their interactions. Plus the dialogue was much too wordy and a bit overacted. I suspect 'Young Protectors' is a newer work because it's much better and doesn't have the faults of Artifice.

I still recommend Artifice, btw. While I point out its faults, it's still a very romantic story with good tension and drama despite the predictable plot.

[The Pecman]

I agree -- very well-done.

[Bruin Fisher]

I love gay comics - this one is really great.