The Blue Flame Preview Asks if Heroes Are Still Relevant
A special preview for the upcoming Vault series The Blue Flame asks the question: are superheroes still relevant? Writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Adam Gorham will explore this theme in the new book, with the first issue available in print and digital May 26.
This question has been explored in various comics over the years, including Watchmen, Squadron Supreme, and The Authority, among others. These titles invited readers to consider how superheroes might actually affect the real world at large. In Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan helped the United States win the Vietnam War. The Squadron Supreme attempted to roll out a program to turn their world into a utopia, with disastrous results. Today, with the planet seemingly on the brink of chaos - between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, political strife, and countless other societal issues - how might superheroes react to such a world? Could it eventually overwhelm even them?
A special sneak peek provided to AIPT reveals these questions will be front and center in The Blue Flame. In an interview accompanying the preview, Cantwell explains that the 21st century has seen tragedies and events that “challenges the very idea of what it means to be human, let alone superhuman.” Superhero comics can offer solace, Cantwell muses, but what if that solace is taken away? How might that impact a person? The Blue Flame was created as a way to explore these ideas and more. There are two stories running through The Blue Flame. The first is what Cantwell described as a “high stakes cosmic quest,” where the hero must justify the survival of the human race. The second, more grounded story thread follows the hero's alter-ego, a blue-collar HVAC technician living in Milwaukee, who must deal with contemporary, real-world problems. The two starkly different existences threaten to overwhelm the Blue Flame, leading Cantwell to ask if heroes, in light of all that is going on in our world are still relevant at all? Check out the cover art and preview paged below.
Cantwell’s other works, which includes time spent writing Iron Man and Doctor Doom, have dealt with such humanizing issues as well, ones often not explored in larger-than-life comic book stories. In Iron Man, Tony Stark is trying to reconnect with the people he has sworn to save and Cantwell's take on Doctor Doom was one of the best in recent memory, peeling back Doom’s many layers to reveal the man underneath the mask. Now he's teaming up with Gorham, colorist Kurt Michael Russell and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou to bring readers The Blue Flame, which will explore these themes even further.
The world has experienced countless tragedies over the past several years, all of which have had a profound impact on the human psyche. In the modern day, are superheroes still relevant? Can readers still find solace and escapism in them in trying times? The Blue Flame, coming May 26 from Vault Comics, will provide new insight into this question.
Source: AIPT