If you like your superheroes speedy like The Flash and Quicksilver then Bullet is the book for you.

Publisher: Altruist Comics
Writer: Randy Stone, Jordan Alsaqa
Artist: Kath Lobo
Price: TBC from Altruist Comics Gumroad Store

Taking the classic concept of the super speedster, this origin story starts with an ageing Bullet (aka Dale de Souza) reminiscing on his time as a super hero, before we flashback to 1960s and see him discover his powers during a series of experiments in a university lab. Dale is revealed to operate at high levels of intelligence, strength and speed, but only for a finite amount of time before it takes effect on his body (and while we will try not to spoil the end, this is very important and the unique element of this super hero story which we always harp on about!!).

Writers Randy Stone and Jordan Alsaqa are channelling their best Lee/Kirby origin for the Bullet and the period setting and lab based location all feels very familiar. While it is set the 1960s the artwork from Kath Lobo has a very 00s Mark Bagley, Ultimate Spider-man feel to it – which is not bad thing – however for us, it just doesn’t quite go with the period setting at times and feels a bit too slick and polished. However, this is a minor point as as Lobo’s clean lines and dynamic layouts means it all looks great and good enough to be included in a book for a larger indie publisher.

The story meanwhile is a tough one. Randy and Jordan have created a really fun and well put-together indie superhero comic – it just all feels a bit safe and predictable. The origin has a ‘how’ but not really a ‘why’ and so we don’t know where Dale’s powers come from. Meanwhile his shift to being a superhero with high powered villains is all a bit quick and lacks a bit of big picture logic beyond “it’s a superhero book, just go with it!”

Ultimately because this is just a one-shot and it is all about building towards the finale you can forgive some of these short comings as they are needed to move the story along at pace. It just lacks that really defining edge that books like Red Rocket Comet or Whatever Happened To The Fastest Man in The World had that made them really stand out from the crowd. At the end of the day though, we did enjoy this book and it does a great job of capturing the fun that superhero books can still elicit, as well as a telling an enjoyable story at a lightning quick pace along the way!