By Tom Peyer
I was 6 years old when I bought issue 140 of Superman. Like so many classic Silver Age tales, “The Son of Bizarro” was a crazy soap opera. In the issue, Bizarro Superman and Bizarro Lois have a son who is born human, so they sadly send him away from Bizarro world to be raised on Earth among the humans. He ends up in an orphanage with Supergirl, but then there’s a twist, because, eventually, he actually turns into a Bizarro after all. It was a delayed change – almost like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. And so Bizarro Superman and Bizarro Lois learn of this development and send an army to take back their son.
What a story! What an introduction to comic book storytelling.
All these years later, I still love superheroes. I love their secret identities, their outlandish origins and powers, their colorful costumes and code names and the near infinite parallel worlds, full of doubles and doppelgangers.
And that brings me to THE WRONG EARTH, the very first book release from AHOY Comics. What Jamal Igle, Juan Castro and I set out to create with THE WRONG EARTH is a comic that subverts the superhero tropes we all know so well.
On one earth, Dragonflyman is an earnest, carefree crime fighting crusader dedicated to working with the authorities to uphold justice.
On another earth, The Dragonflyman is a very different man. He’s angry and disillusioned. He’s taking out criminals like an exterminator gets rid of parasites and roaches. Things are going to get messy.
And then the heroes switch worlds and everything changes.
THE WRONG EARTH might seem like an outlier on the AHOY Comics list. We don’t really publish superheroes, after all. Instead we’re releasing religious satires (like the eagerly anticipated SECOND COMING by Mark Russell and Richard Pace and HIGH HEAVEN by myself and Greg Scott), time traveling tales (like BRONZE AGE BOOGIE by Stuart Moore and Alberto Ponticelli and PLANET OF THE NERDS by Paul Constant, Alan Robinson and Randy Elliot), the over-the-topic outer space adventures of CAPTAIN GINGER (featuring the adventures of cats in space courtesy of Stuart Moore, June Brigman and Roy Richardson) and the booze soaked antics of EDGAR ALLAN POE’S SNIFTER OF TERROR. What THE WRONG EARTH has in common with all those titles is these are comics with a (dark) sense of humor. They are also comics for people who love comics by people who love comics.
The Wrong Earth, Vol. 1 trade paperback is due out in comic shops today and in bookstores on May 14. Check out preview pages below:
Wrong Earth
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Wrong Earth
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