Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s new comic, Brilliant, is another version of the “Superpowers in the Real World” genre. This is hardly a new idea; Action Comics was treading this ground decades ago, but the appeal here isn’t the fresh new take on superpowers. The appeal is in the story and characters.

*Spoilers to follow*

Brilliant begins with a bank robbery. We are introduced to Amadeus, as the young man is about to rob a bank in broad daylight. He appears to possess mind control and some resistance to bullets. He also appears to be a jerk.

We quickly cut to Albert on his first day back to college after taking off for a semester. By the end of the book, Albert’s friends, including Amadeus, geniuses all, invite him to help the group pioneer work in developing superpowers.

*End Spoilers*

I was happy with the writing. The characters were interesting and the dialogue sounded natural. The art wasn’t quite superhero standard, but it was close enough to be familiar. I should mention that I don’t know any industry terms for different styles of comic art, but you probably figured that one out on your own. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t a reinvention of the wheel, but it was an interesting look at one. I liked the characters and dug the whole college as a nice way to collect the characters and keep their social lives relatively contained. This was just the first issue, and I don’t have a clue where the story is going. I don’t know who will be an antagonist. I don’t even know whether everybody has the same powers, but I think I’ll stick around to find out.