Batman & Superman Are The Same Person in ALTER EGO (Exclusive Preview)
In Alter Ego, fans get to meet a new hero who's both a dark street fighter like Batman and an icon of virtue like Superman. The new graphic novel comes from writer Nate Cosby (Cow Boy), artist Jacob Edgar (James Bond), colorist Kike J. Diaz (Red Sonja), and letterer Rus Wooton (The Walking Dead).
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, the classic comics of the time are a reality. During the day, a hero named Whiz-Bang fights more whimsical threats such as atomic robots and bank robbers who utilize circus skills. At night, a mysterious vigilante named the Black Dog arrives in a cloud of smoke to fight darker threats such as feral beasts and seedy criminal organizations. The people of the city don't realize, however, that both heroes are cocky stuntman Ace Adams.
After his acting career stalls, Adams begins fighting crime as the beloved Whiz-Bang, but once he realizes the real danger comes out at night, he also adopts the persona of the Black Dog, embarking on a double-life that's too complex and too dangerous to last. A campaign for the 100-page comic is live now on Kickstarter, ending April 14, and promises variant cover art from Declan Shalvey (Moon Knight), Phil Hester (Justice League), Wilfredo Torres (Superman '78), Chris Eliopoulos (Ordinary People Change The World), and Sozomakia (Catwoman). Enjoy a preview of the graphic novel, exclusive to Screen Rant, below.
Of the project, Cosby says:
When our story begins, Ace Adams has been successfully fighting crime by day as Whiz-Bang for a year. Whiz-Bang and his can-do attitude are beloved by everybody. He’s on posters and lunch boxes. He stars in comic books, and even has his own breakfast cereal! But when Ace chooses to also defend the night as The Black Dog, the balance begins to shift and what was once a blast for Ace becomes a deadly tightrope act. He’ll be faced with impossible choices, forced to compromise his moral code, and begin to question the entire purpose of his quest to always be there and save everyone.
ALTER EGO is all about what it means to be a hero. Can you do more good if you’re a role model to kids and the community? Or is justice best dished out by a mysterious vigilante operating in the shadows? And when one man tries to be three people…who is he, really?
The contrast between Batman and Superman is what makes them such a unique team as well as sometime opponents, so taking the dark and light side of superheroing and throwing them into a single character is sure to make for an interesting story. Ace Adams has his reasons for embodying two different kinds of heroes, but the dichotomy of their personas is bound to have its effect on him. It will be interesting to see how he copes with the stress of being two different kinds of vigilantes. Edgar promises the story will have an incredible sense of variety even beyond the aesthetics fans will associate with these two heroes:
In a lot of ways, ALTER EGO is exactly the kind of project I got into comics for. I’m an unabashed superhero fan, particularly superheroes flavored with the kind of swashbuckling adventure tone that we’re going for. I love bringing this elevated, fantasy version 40s/50s Hollywood to life and I think readers will be really excited by the characters and world Nate and I are creating. We’re jumping from bombastic superheroics, to noir, to Old West movie sets and so much more. I think there’s an energy we’re putting into the book that I hope will leap off the page when people get ahold of it.
The Kickstarter itself includes prints by the series and cover artists for some tiers, as well as a $500 tier which offers five backers the chance to actually make a cameo within the comic, turning it into the ultimate collector's item. Split between embodying the ideal of Superman and the gritty practicality of Batman, Alter Ego is set to ask some insightful questions about the idea of being a superhero against an unbelievably fun backdrop of Hollywood at its most iconic.
Source: Kickstarter