Hyperion #1
HYPERION #1
Capsule Review
With all due respect to creators Chuck Wendig and Nik Varella, does anyone want a Hyperion book? Has anyone ever wanted a Hyperion book? I ask because in an age where New Avengers sells less than 20K copies a month, giving Hyperion his own book sure seems like shoving an orphan into the storm. Marvel is shining a spotlight on the Squadron, for whatever reason … in addition to their new Squadron Supreme series, we are getting a Nighthawk book in a couple weeks. It is strange, but I suppose I shouldn’t fault Marvel for trying. I do fault Marvel for not trying harder. This new Hyperion book isn’t terrible, but it is nowhere near outstanding enough to break out in this market. For those not in the know, Hyperion is Marvel’s answer to Superman, a relic of an unauthorized Avengers vs. JLA pastiche from decades ago. Here we join Hyperion as he dons a trucker cap to drive across the country and fume and ruminate about his Squadron pals. He picks up a girl on the run and then collides with the Hills Have Eyes carney rednecks that are hot on her heels. This is a perfectly adequate book with a couple mild surprises, but I tell you … I felt the shadow of cancellation before I was a quarter of the way through the book. I can’t see new readers jumping on board with this story, and die-hard Hyperion fans (both of them) will find their hero nearly unrecognizable here.
Approachability For New Readers
There is a wordy explanation of Hyperion and his backstory on the title page. It does the job.
Read #2?
No, thanks.
Sales Rank
(N/A)
Read more capsule reviews of Marvel’s All-New All-Different rolling reboot.
Posted on April 6, 2016, in Reviews and tagged All-New All-Different Marvel, Chuck Wendig, Marvel Comics, Nik Varella. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
The best Hyperion is the Squadron Supreme version, JM Straczynski’s.
My guess as to why such a book exists is that the attrition of readership for any new series still financially justifies a handful of issues, and in my opinion, fans are more likely to jump onboard something labeled “new ongoing” (it counts; I’ll buy it!) vs “new limited series” (it doesn’t count; I’ll pass). There may not even be a true intention to make this book a regular ongoing, but if it hits, bam, they’re geniuses. I’ll set the over/under at 7 for this one. (I think a cancellation over/under feature would be great reading material here, and it would be fun to see how on or off you are on the predictions. Maybe it’s too pessimistic, though. I’m not a grumpy old man, I swear.)
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You are certainly right that more = more, so far as Marvel is concerned, but I still balk at this particular book. Hyperion? Really? When Blade and Ghost Rider don’t have a book? (To say nothing of the Fantastic Four). It’s such a strange choice.
And yes, of course, everything is a limited series these days, though I put the over/under for any cancellation at five issues. That’s about the minimum required for collection, and that was the number when recent books like Black Knight and Hercules were taken out behind the back shed.
By the way … Marvel never cancels anything, not any more. They “stealth cancel” — they just stop soliciting a book, and never admit to cancellation. It occurs to me that Warren Ellis might be a genius in only shipping two issues of Karnak in six months. If you never ship, you can’t to five issues, and you never get cancelled, stealthily or otherwise! It’s win/win!
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Oh my lord. Karnak is stalled at 2 issues?!!?!?!? I read here on this site about its debut, and my thoughts then were pretty much everything you wrote out here about Hyperion.
And I had no idea 5 was the new go-away magic number. I’m way out of the loop in 2016.
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You know, it’s true — no one asked for a Karnak book any more than they asked for a Hyperion book. But the Karnak, book, at least, was distinctive and entertaining, while Hyperion (to its credit) tried for something new, but didn’t quite deliver.
Both are likely doomed to failure, and are peculiar choices no matter how you look at it (though Karnak fits into Marvel’s supposed push to set up the Inhumans as the next XMen).
Either way, it is a killing ground out there for superhero books that don’t star Spider-Man or Batman. I sense a reckoning.
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Yeah, sounds like a bit of a dud. BTW I tried to buy the Power-Man/Iron-FIst book but the only copy I found was the Skottie Young variant cover for $9… I am a reader not a collector, so I had to put it back.
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Not worth nine bucks, you made the right choice. Set aside that money for the trade. (Or get the digital!)
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One more comment – the cover! That does not even look like the classic Hyperion character to me. Wasn’t he read and yellow? With a cute little Robin-style domino mask?! Ah well, things change.
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That cover design is in line with Hyperion’s appearance in the new Squadron Supreme book, but the kicker is that he spends this entire issue wearing flannels and a trucker cap. He doesn’t put on the super-suit until the last page, and even then, he’s in silhouette. It is an odd book full of odd choices.
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Yeah…it’s not awful ..but i mean, who is this for? They needed to build Hyperion up before giving him a book on his own…there is no heat hear….. i want to like this but……
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