Comic Review: Local Man Vol 1: Heartland

Local Man hits all of the beats of the ’90s Image revolution

Remember when Image Comics launched in the mid-’90s and we got a load of new, edgy characters? Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs sure do. Local Man is their love letter to those comics, and more.

Local Man Vol 1:Heartland
Issues 1-5
W: Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs
A: Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs
Image Comics
Amazon

Local Man follows Jack Xaver, the hero formerly known as CrossJack, as he returns to the small town he was so desperate to escape from. He doesn’t find a warm welcome; the fallen hero has been kicked out of Third Gen and dragged through the PR mud. He’s no longer able to use his superhero name, his costume, or his trusty shield. Trouble follows Jack home, but there is a mystery needing to be unraveled as to why the trouble is here.

The book is set in the larger Image Universe and it brings in a lot of names from the past; you get names you haven’t heard in a while. Third Gen feels like it’s out of Youngblood or WildCATS.

The book is interesting because it also features 2 stories; the first is the current day Jack back in Farmington while the backup story is a series of flashbacks to young Jack, Third Gen, and why they split.

The story has a very retro feel, but with a modern writing style. Many ’90s books feel dated and are overloaded with exposition while this hits on the nostalgia while realizing the reader can pick up on the subtext already laid out. They craft a narrative that could have worked 30 years ago without the tropes that plagued those books.

The art, much like the story, has modern tones while still hitting that nostalgic feel of early Image; this is especially true the backup stories that are supposed to be set around the time of the original Image books.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. While most first volumes of a book are all set up, Local Man hits the ground running and catches the reader up as they go. For those that grew up on Brigade, Youngblood, Cyberforce, and Shadowhawk, it’s the perfect book to scratch the nostalgic itch.

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