Project: Patron #1: What Will We Do? Oh Wait, He’s Alive!

Project: Patron is a very interesting concept.  Normally when a hero dies, the exploration is in the aftershock of the death.  How will the world cope and of course the eventual return of that hero? This has never been explored more famously than in the Death of Superman arc. This is different.

Writer Steve Orlando here puts a spin on this concept.  The first caption is what will the world do without Patron and just as quickly the statement is that they will never know.  Instead of the hero returning, a secret group recreates that hero by building a replicant or android and then choosing different pilots depending on the mission they are to run.

I particularly liked that for the first few pages we all think that this is the actual hero returning from the dead but then we quickly learn and meet the pilots that have brought the hero back to life. This is a promising concept with a spin to the old storytelling trope of the death of a hero. This is something that I want to definitely add to by pull list.

Patrick Piazzalunga’s art is terrific for this story. The style is the typical style for a superhero comic but it does look unique.  I particularly liked Piazzalunga’s use of backgrounds. The detail of the battle between Patron and Woe is believable because of the detailed backgrounds.  The devastation of the fight looks real and the injuries to Patron look realistic without being overly gruesome.  The artist does not rely on shock to get his point and perspective across and I enjoy that.  I would however not recommend little kids read this because it does open with the death of the hero.