Group Dynamics: The Mercuri Brothers Superteam Has Family Issues

The Mercuri Bros.
Prodigal Son Press
$2.25 cover price
Written/illustrated by Thomas Slaski

There was a time when superhero groups were just a cluster of popular characters thrown together like a cheap jewelry in a thrift store shoebox.

The original Justice Society was composed of superheroes (or ‘Mystery Men’, as they were called back in the day) who all had their own comic book features. One day, some enterprising publisher decided that if The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and all the rest could carry their own features (and some of them had enough juice to carry their own comic book titles), then having them all on one big superteam might move readers to pony up a bit more of their disposable income.

The whole superteam concept changed with the introduction of the Fantastic Four, who were not just a group of heroes, but a family. Johnny and Sue Storm were siblings, Reed married Sue, and Ben Grimm was like the best friend who visits you after college and won’t go away. For all their bickering and quarrels, they are held together by family ties.

Family is also central to Thomas Slaski’s new comic book, The Mercuri Bros.

We learn in the first issue that Joshua Kennedy, code named ‘Seizure,’ has super-strength and his brother, code named ‘Battery,’ feeds off natural energy like heat and gravity. There is also a super-powered man named Jason, code named ‘Mortar,’ who is having problems with the mother of his unborn child.

I have complained that often the first issue of a superteam book has too much happening for any one of the individual characters to display much personality. But Slaski does a pretty good job of characterization. Slaski’s storyline contains what Jackie Chan calls ‘explanation by action.’ You learn about the characters’ personalities by watching them in action and watching them interact with each other.

The story begins with Seizure trying to recruit a stevedore into Team Mercuri. As the adventure unfolds, the superteam is trying to end a hostage situation at an abortion clinic.

Give Slaski his props: at a time when legislators and federal judges are ducking the abortion issue, he confronts it head on. Mortar even tells the mother of his child that he will kill her and her unborn baby if she insists on an abortion. This is bound to raise controversy on both sides of the abortion issue but Slaski doesn’t flinch.

And this is what I love about independent comics, they have the guts to explore topics that corporate comic publishers wouldn’t touch with a vaccinated crowbar. I mean, do you think Lois Lane or Mary Jane Watson is going to visit an abortion clinic, worrying about the problems of carrying a super-human baby full term?

But there is much to recommend about The Mercuri Bros. aside from controversial topics. Slaski does a nice job with pacing, shifting the focus back and forth between Seizure explaining the team to a befuddled blue-collar dock-worker, and the segue to the hostage crisis. There is a lot going on in the first issue and Slaski has enough respect for his readers’ intelligence to expect them to pay attention to detail. This is a comic book you read first for impact and then read again for sub-context.

Slaski’s art is also compelling. The superteam — and I keep using that term because we’re never quite sure how many of them are actually ‘heroes’ — is not elaborately costumed. Slaski apparently wants his readers to think as freely as he does and doesn’t want his first issue constrained or consumed by empty dazzle. The Team Mercuri characters are immediately accessible because they look and act pretty much like an ordinary person would if they had meta-human skills.

The Mercuri Bros. is obviously a labor of love for Slaski and he has put a lot of effort into making his comic realistic, relevant, and — most importantly — fun.