Aero #1
Kenneth Bowden
Recap
Exploding from the pages of Agents of Atlas, Aero is one of the newest additions to the Marvel Universe roster. The protector of Shanghai and mistress of all things aerokinetic, Aero makes her first solo battle against the city of Shanghai itself! Something or someone is transforming the buildings of the city into inorganic Kaiju style beasts.
The Chinese military is forced to intervene when a mysterious mass comes plummeting down from the sky, a monstrosity straight outta Fullmetal Alchemist or something that demolishes the jets in the fray and threatens to finish off Shanghai along with the mutated skyscrapers turned rampaging beasts.
As far as initial solo outings go, Aero has quite the challenge on her plate which makes for one interesting arc to pull new readers in.
There's also a backup feature of Wave another in the new line of Asian-centric heroes but I'll leave that feature spoiler free for the time being. Sufficient it to say though it does make for a fun if brief read in it's own right which just adds to the reasons to snatch up Aero.
Review
So I’m gonna be upfront about the fact I had zero expectations for this book to be all that good. I skipped Agents of Atlas at first because I’ve seen many attempts at shoehorning out an ethnically diverse team with “diversity for the sake of diversity” being the main selling point. Having that in mind, I just didn’t expect it to be great and just banking on the fact Marvel doesn’t have any real toe holds in an Asian market book-wise, and ya know, people love anything anime.
Well I’ll keep it 100 and admit that yeah, I was pretty much right about most of those things, but what I very much wasn’t right about is the book/characters probably not being good and having no real substance to them. Enter Aero: a strong, self assured young hero with high aspirations and expectations of herself despite being a “noob” to the hero gig.
Lei Ling is an awesome character with a great power set that’s usually underplayed with other superhumans (cough, Red Tornado jobbing, cough). Combine that with making her actually unique and not just a meme worthy Anime magical girl trope and you have a winning combo. By the end of the issue you’ll find yourself engrossed in just what are these mystery creatures she’s fighting, what unique methods will she employ with her wind powers to defeat them and just genuinely want to know more about who she is when she’s not zipping around doing her best Faith impression.
With so much potentially stacked against this book being any kinda good and having any real weight to it, it’s very rewarding to read and see classic superhero action with a creative tweak on it. The other thing to consider is with so many strong female lead books out right now, just what will they do with Aero to keep her standing out from the crowd? Not only is that fun to ponder, but also the potential for some truly great stories to come.
Final Thoughts
Aero #1 is a light read, but a good one. I don't need every book I pick up to try and out artsy the Watchmen. Sometimes you just wanna see superheroes do super stuff and the usual accompanying dramatics that come with it. Aero is a perfect book for an afternoon read where you can zone out into it and just be entertained from the first page all the way to the last one.
Aero #1: Cyclones Made to Order
- Writing - 7.5/107.5/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 8.5/108.5/10
