What do you think?
Rate this book
Brain Boy #1
Brain Boy Volume 1
Ambushed while protecting an important statesman, Matt Price, a.k.a. Brain Boy, finds himself wrapped up in political intrigue that could derail a key United Nations conference and that sets the psychic spy on a collision course with a man whose mental powers rival his own! Collects Brain Boy #0–#3.
* New York Times bestseller Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong).
• Art by R. B. Silva (Superboy, Jimmy Olsen), and Freddie Williams II (Green Arrow, Captain Atom)!
* New York Times bestseller Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong).
• Art by R. B. Silva (Superboy, Jimmy Olsen), and Freddie Williams II (Green Arrow, Captain Atom)!
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2014
33 people want to read
About the author
Fred Van Lente
1,376 books321 followersFred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 17, 2019
3.5 stars
Think Ninjak with telepathic powers.
And, admittedly, Brain Boy is yet another terribly stupid moniker (like Ninjak) that will probably drive off a lot of readers. And (like Ninjak) this is much better than the name would suggest.
Brain Boy is what all the other agents secretly call Matt Price. Except it's not actually a secret since he can read their minds.
He's another of Valiant's (No, it's not, it's from Dark Horse! Really? Yes, really! Thank you, Chad.) raised in a lab heroes who are about to embark on a journey to discover his past.
The plot is pretty cool.
There's a bad guy, a cute girl, an evil alien, and conspiracies galore.
I know most of you won't care about this title, but I thought it good.
Think Ninjak with telepathic powers.
And, admittedly, Brain Boy is yet another terribly stupid moniker (like Ninjak) that will probably drive off a lot of readers. And (like Ninjak) this is much better than the name would suggest.
Brain Boy is what all the other agents secretly call Matt Price. Except it's not actually a secret since he can read their minds.
He's another of Valiant's (No, it's not, it's from Dark Horse! Really? Yes, really! Thank you, Chad.) raised in a lab heroes who are about to embark on a journey to discover his past.
The plot is pretty cool.
There's a bad guy, a cute girl, an evil alien, and conspiracies galore.
I know most of you won't care about this title, but I thought it good.
January 9, 2015
Bullet Review:
This was my first read of 2015 and what a crazy one it is! Apparently, this comic is an update of something from the Silver Age. I would never have even known about this had a coworker not seen it in the library and passed it along to me.
It's a decent comic; the main character, Matt Price, who insists on not being called "Brain Boy" (which is what his name must have been in the Silver Age), has mental powers galore, which he uses in his contracting job for the United States Secret Service. Mostly, he wants to find out how his parents died and protect the US from being taken over.
I don't know that I would bother with the following issues, but it certainly wasn't a bad way to pass a few hours.
This was my first read of 2015 and what a crazy one it is! Apparently, this comic is an update of something from the Silver Age. I would never have even known about this had a coworker not seen it in the library and passed it along to me.
It's a decent comic; the main character, Matt Price, who insists on not being called "Brain Boy" (which is what his name must have been in the Silver Age), has mental powers galore, which he uses in his contracting job for the United States Secret Service. Mostly, he wants to find out how his parents died and protect the US from being taken over.
I don't know that I would bother with the following issues, but it certainly wasn't a bad way to pass a few hours.
June 20, 2020
I enjoyed this more during this recent re-read. Brain Boy (That's what the Secret Service people call him) is a telepath contracted out to the Secret Service. There's all kinds of other people with different brain powers he's on the lookout for while providing protection duty. It looks like there's more at play that I'm guessing will figure into volume 2. The art by RB Silva and Freddie Williams II is pretty great with eye-popping colors. Apparently this was based on an old Dell comic from the 60's.
June 30, 2014
A very interesting little book with some good ideas and a protagonist that you're not sure if you like or not. The highlight is R. B. Silva's excellent artwork, but Van Lente's script is strong and sets up some good ongoing plot threads that could easily tie into the overall Project Black Sky thing they have going on at Dark Horse at the moment. If anything, I think the #0 issue could have been a bit more linked to the main story rather than its own thing that doesn't really affect much, but a minor gripe. Roll on volume 2.
December 17, 2015
Brain Boy reads others people minds, hates being called Brain Boy (so everybody calls him that and frankly, I've forgotten his name too) and he is he is most powerful of his kind.
He must protect the leader of some Spanish-speaking country but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Then there's a bunch of people around who I'm not sure who they are exactly and most of the mission Brain Boy is in involves his parents' death. There's also one of those corporations (the one who took Brain Boy when he became an orphan and trained him) who are always up to no good. So, the story confused me (to be fair, I've just caught a cold so I'm kind of in zombie mode) and the art wasn't my cup of tea. This volume is only three issues long plus #0 which doesn't connect much with the rest of the issues.
Overall: forgettable.
He must protect the leader of some Spanish-speaking country but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Then there's a bunch of people around who I'm not sure who they are exactly and most of the mission Brain Boy is in involves his parents' death. There's also one of those corporations (the one who took Brain Boy when he became an orphan and trained him) who are always up to no good. So, the story confused me (to be fair, I've just caught a cold so I'm kind of in zombie mode) and the art wasn't my cup of tea. This volume is only three issues long plus #0 which doesn't connect much with the rest of the issues.
Overall: forgettable.
September 4, 2018
This is a reboot of a short-lived comic from the early 1960s that I had never heard of before. It’s interesting in that it’s more of a spy thriller than a superhero comic, although it was clearly comfortable in that genre.
From what snippets I can find, the original was more along the lines of The Spirit Archives, Vol. 1 by Will Eisner or Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff, except with psychic powers. Giving the main character an Hispanic girlfriend was pretty forward-thinking for 1961.
This reboot keeps all of the major pieces in place: psychic government agent, South American dictator, shadowy corporations up to no good, and updates it nicely. Kind of sad how so few things have changed in 50+ years.
It’s a fairly standard noir piece with double-crosses and triple-crosses, but enjoyable for all that. The artwork is nicely done, letting the story flow without getting in the way. I’ve already ordered the next one, to see where the story goes.
From what snippets I can find, the original was more along the lines of The Spirit Archives, Vol. 1 by Will Eisner or Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff, except with psychic powers. Giving the main character an Hispanic girlfriend was pretty forward-thinking for 1961.
This reboot keeps all of the major pieces in place: psychic government agent, South American dictator, shadowy corporations up to no good, and updates it nicely. Kind of sad how so few things have changed in 50+ years.
It’s a fairly standard noir piece with double-crosses and triple-crosses, but enjoyable for all that. The artwork is nicely done, letting the story flow without getting in the way. I’ve already ordered the next one, to see where the story goes.
September 15, 2025
This book is an update on a silver age character, that Darkhorse comics developed as part of their project Black Sky initiative, a period around the 2010s in which they were revamping obscure characters like Captain Midnight and more in a shared universe with their Darhorse heroes (Ghost, X, etc.).
Brain Boy was opne of the silver age heroes that, at its original publication, didnt wear a classic superhero costume ( had latin woman of color as love interest, and a Fidel Castro-lookalike as villain. The times have changed, and writter fred Van Lente (Ivar Time Walker) modernizes this concepts fairly well, and give us a decent thriller with a politica and meta huma twist.
As a starting volume, it use very well his page rate to give us and idea of the world around "Brain Boy" (a code name disrespectfully given to him), and stablishes the current misssion and looming perils that may be present in further volumes.
Recommended for fans of super hero themed political thrillers.
Brain Boy was opne of the silver age heroes that, at its original publication, didnt wear a classic superhero costume ( had latin woman of color as love interest, and a Fidel Castro-lookalike as villain. The times have changed, and writter fred Van Lente (Ivar Time Walker) modernizes this concepts fairly well, and give us a decent thriller with a politica and meta huma twist.
As a starting volume, it use very well his page rate to give us and idea of the world around "Brain Boy" (a code name disrespectfully given to him), and stablishes the current misssion and looming perils that may be present in further volumes.
Recommended for fans of super hero themed political thrillers.
July 31, 2018
Didn't have an idea in mind for a comic to read so I searched for sci-fi in my Hoopla app (shoutout to that app and libraries in general. Though honestly just assume that I'm getting the vast majority of my books from libraries). Found this one and decided to check it out because I'm generally a fan of psychic abilities.
It was alright. Had some funny moments, some decent action. It was pretty gory and...honestly seemed pretty shallow, but if you're not looking for anything deep, it could be a fun read. Personally it didn't do a whole lot for me.
It was alright. Had some funny moments, some decent action. It was pretty gory and...honestly seemed pretty shallow, but if you're not looking for anything deep, it could be a fun read. Personally it didn't do a whole lot for me.
November 12, 2019
Dark Horse found a C-list super hero and decided to revamp him for the modern age...and it works!
Brain Boy (don't call him that, he hates it) is a powerful psychic, who was orphaned an d raised in a government lab.
He is now grown up, still a powerful psychic and ready to be a secret agent.
Fun mix of James Bond style spy hijinks and super heroes with just the right amount of a sense of humor.
It finds humor in this situation, rather then making fun of the goofy old character.
And Van Lente avoids grim and gritty.
Fun story.
Brain Boy (don't call him that, he hates it) is a powerful psychic, who was orphaned an d raised in a government lab.
He is now grown up, still a powerful psychic and ready to be a secret agent.
Fun mix of James Bond style spy hijinks and super heroes with just the right amount of a sense of humor.
It finds humor in this situation, rather then making fun of the goofy old character.
And Van Lente avoids grim and gritty.
Fun story.
April 24, 2014
4/8/14 Really a 4.5. Review tk.
4/24/14 http://www.iwantmytwodollars.com/2014...
4/24/14 http://www.iwantmytwodollars.com/2014...
February 22, 2015
Even better the second time around. This and Captain Midnight really stand out as the best of the Dark Horse Heroes stuff.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews