Disney’s Hero Squad Ultraheroes #2
Written by Giorgio Salati, Ricardo Secchi
Art by Roberta Mighelli, Stefano Turconi
Covers by Magic Eye Studios
BOOM! Studios
Price: $2.99; Release date: March 3, 2010

Turning Disney characters into super-heroes is nothing new: Super-Goof has been around since my father was a kid. The Disney’s Hero Squad Ultraheroes just extends that tradition to the rest of the Disney characters cast. Iron Gus, Super-Goof, The Red Bat, Super-Daisy, The Duck Avenger, and Cloverleaf band together to battle the evil of Roller Dollar and the Phantom Blot!

The story itself is fairly cartoonish and fun. Mickey Mouse hunts for Scrooge McDuck’s money bin, while the Ultra-Heroes match wits with the Roller Dollar and Phantom Blot to hunt down a series of Ultra-pods. What is really interesting about this particular comic is that, in many ways, it throws back to the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics of the 1960’s.

Writer Giorgio Salati includes references to old issues in narrative boxes and hilarious nicknames, much the same way that Lee used to do in their original Marvel Universe stories. The splitting up of the super-team to all fulfill separate missions and face different villains is reflective of old-school Avengers and Justice League comics, many of which are now available in large black and white volumes. The inclusion of The Origin of Super-Goof at the end of each comic plays into the comics kitschy nostalgia.

Roberta Mighelli‘s work is traditionally Disney, bright colours, and heavy ink lines. The one knock I would have against the art is that many of the super-hero costumes looks the same, and it can get difficult at times figuring out which characters are which. Some variation in the costume colour schemes and layout would have made the comic much more interesting to look at.

Still, Ultraheroes is a fun children’s comic that includes enough interesting tidbits to keep traditional comic book fans happy.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Super-Goobers