Local Man #5: The Heroism of Small Stakes

Local Man #5 is yet another hit for the indie superhero series, rife with surprising plot developments and an excellent origin point for Jack’s new identity as a local hero. The book reveals a compelling message about what it truly means to save a person’s world, bringing this arc to a startlingly powerful conclusion for both the characters and the reader. However, as much as this issue concludes, it also sets up a pretty bright future for the series.

The book opens with Jack in the 4th Gen facility after he and Brian had barely escaped the clutches of Camo Crusader. With the cape killer hot on his trail and stuck ruminating on his failure to understand what a hero is, Jack comes face to face with both the best and worst of his past. The issue crescendos with a new mission statement for Jack and a massive villain twist that is genuinely unexpected and completely changes the game.

Jeremy, aka our murderer, represents what superhero fiction in the 90s incidentally inspired. In many ways, he boldly stands for midwestern radicalization in a time where that seems more pertinent than ever in America. He’s the forgotten citizen driven to the point of evil to feel seen, needed, and human. Jack’s abandonment of his hometown has been explored in the book but never tackled quite as heavily as this. Yes, he’s saved the literal world countless times, but the people who held onto him for hope still suffer in an impoverished void where the rest world never seems to pay any attention.

As such, even with all his mistakes, a level of combative sympathy drives Jack to recognize the bloated selfishness of his celebrity heroism. Saving the world isn’t performative and doesn’t mean stopping an alien invasion. People look to superheroes to save their worlds. If Superman were to exist, people would be angry when he didn’t show up to save their worlds. In their minds, an armageddon event is not as scary as their daily lives being rife with suffrage. If a hero can stop and fight a god-like monster, what’s stopping them from helping a town pull itself out from the brink of economic and social collapse?

Some would say it would make for a boring story, but alas, Spider-Man is at his best when he’s an everyman, interacting with the people of New York and saving the worlds of individuals over fighting a giant sky beam. The same can be said for Superman; they’re only the two most popular superheroes in popular fiction.

These are the things Jack faces as someone who didn’t sign to be a hero out of good but because he could be celebrated for being good. The book is critical of both the Image superhero and the all-powerful monarch of morality heroes of the 40s once were, as showcased by an interaction between Jack and Erica after his knock-down, drag-out brawl with Jeremy. It feels as though the creatives behind this book and Jack are trying to get to the root of what a superhero is. As such, they masterfully crescendo this arc, with it ending as a surprise origin story for Jack’s new identity. This book interjects its thematic rumination right into its plot. Yes, it has a profound message about heroism, radicalization, and desperation, but the book is exciting even without those things.

The surface-level plot wraps up nicely, the action is well-placed and weighty, and the teases setup by the backup story and the main story’s ending set up an arc that could even surpass the masterful work of storytelling seen with this one. I will break the reviewer’s code here and use some personal pronouns, but the thematic resonance of this issue made me emotional while reading.

Visually, the book sits on the same playing field as before. Each story uses its visuals in the best possible way, and both levels echo their story’s themes well within both the pencil and coloring work.