Boy Maximortal: Number One

The King Hell Heroica #3

by Rick Veitch

Widely acclaimed comic book visionary, Rick Veitch, author of multiple Eisner nominees Brat Pack and The Maximortal, finally returns to his legendary King Hell Heroica. Boy Maximortal continues the story of True-Man, now a teenager hiding from an increasingly desperate military while trying to come to grips with powers far beyond those of normal men, all played against a backdrop of the sleazy underworld of comic book publishing. Veitch’s superhero deconstruction digs deep into the roots and heart of a cultural mythos that has come to define our times.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction

100 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2017

About the author

Richard "Rick" Veitch is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.

Reviews

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Jack Kirby analogue character is so rad! Veitch nailed that entire sequence to perfection.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of Veitch's decades spanning yet still unfinished "King Hell Heroica" saga. Which includes:
- Brat Pack (1990-91)
- The Maximortal (1992-93)
- Brat Pack/Maximortal Super Special 1+2 (1996-97) - This ties together the two books which are otherwise quite different.
- and now four volumes of Boy Maximortal (2017, 2020, 2021, 2023)

This is maybe my favourite of the bunch. The artwork is stripped down to just black lines (no grey tones like in Brat Pack or water color like in Maximortal.

We get to see young Maximortal growing up (kind of like Superman's Smallville) and we get to see more of the creators of the comic including a Jack Kirby analogue.

[Jorge Villarruel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the work of genius. Mad genius. And you deserve to read this. Don't ever think you don't, because you do.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

a truly fun banger. this is a very, very underrated meta super hero take - probably more so because veitch's art, like eddie campbell's in bacchus, is just so good, and both are illustrating their own vision. veitch's central conceit is to connect real-life comics history with the actual history of the maximortal, and it works so well that you have to wonder why this wasn't/isn't bigger than it is. it's certainly far better than the invincible, which is good page-turning crap but that's about it (yet still better than everything in that genre aside from, say, astro city, which I haven't revisited in years (could it possibly still be going) but remains the ne plus ultra of that kind of work)

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never thought this would come back. So happy it did.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Veitch's long overdue continuation of his "King Hell Heroica" series resumes with "Boy Maximortal" which further fleshes out the early days of young True-Man, an extraterrestrial superhero whose arrival on Earth was first depicted in The Maximortal. But Veitch was never content with just telling a deconstructed Superman mythos story - the "King Hell Heroica" series has always been a way for him to creatively direct criticism towards the comics industry as a whole. The previous volume depicts analogs of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and how they were sidelined by their comic publisher (who is depicted as a parody of Walt Disney) and made only pennies on their iconic serialized comic, "True-Man".

Here, in "Boy Maximortal: Number One", the readers are introduced to the Jack Kirby archetype (along with representations of other real figures like Stan Lee and Joe Simon). The tandem narratives of the true story of the young Wesley who is secretly the superhero known as the True-Man, on which the comics published by the devious Sidney Wallace are coincidentally based on. There is an overtone of Cold War paranoia involving the weaponization of True-Man serving as an analogy to the atomic bomb throughout, but the majority of "Boy Maximortal" focues largely on the medium of comics and their consumption. Sidney Wallace is probably the most apparent villain to the series, finding more ways to deprive the real creators of their compensation while trying more ways to sell out the industry in favor of greater business pursuits. In this volume, Wallace pursues a way to get investors on board for film franchising of his comics but finds that the stigmatization of the comics medium is starting to work against him. Meanwhile, one of the original creators of True-Man has begun to live as Wesley's adoptive father, while secretly ghostwriting comics for Wallace under a psuedonym. The meta commentary here is just as potent as it was in "The Maximortal", making this a fantastic sequel.

Veitch's artstyle has shifted towards a more stripped down form here, but it works well. Gone are the gray brushstrokes found in "Brat Pack" or the muddy water colors in "The Maximortal" in favor of simple black & white linework. The lines are heavy and oppresive, making for some pretty gritty looking compositions and greater contrasts. I prefer this type of art for the series, and I'm glad Veitch continued to keep the series black & white with each succeeding volume.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the continuation of a story I thought dead and incomplete. Thank goodness for the easy independent publishing market or this might never have seen the light of day. The original seven issue Maximortal was a very weird piece of literature. At first it offered the idea that if a baby, well beyond the age of reason, had the powers like Superman does, how could a human couple possibly raise him, teach him anything, or even discipline him without getting torn apart?

The answer of course is that it couldn’t. The government intercedes and eventually the creature is destroyed. Yet it still remains somehow and is reinvigorating itself through the burgeoning comic book industry, reinventing itself as True Man - an obvious Superman analog - through which it seemingly will emerge. This tale is as much about the history of comics - specifically superhero comics - so those who aren’t familiar with it might be a little confused. Personally, I’ve often thought that Rick Veitch was a wildly underrated writer and author and I’m glad more of his material is being published. This book, along with a lot of Veitch’s materials, leaves you wanting more.

One thing to mention though is that only the first 53 pages out of the hundred or so are part of the Maximortal story. The rest is filled up with sketches and an unrelated short four page story about heroes having sex. That’s not to say the book isn’t worth it, the price being fairly reasonable, but there is more than your normal amount of filler in this book. The story continues in Boy Maximortal 2.