BRAVOMAN

This is a millennial sort of comic: An obscure Japanese video game was turned into a webcomic, which has now been collected into a book.

The character of Bravoman is so odd that he may make more sense in a humor strip than as a superhero. In a “super-quick, abbreviated origin” story, an alien endows him with the ability to turn into a submarine and to stretch his arms and legs great distances. The rest of the book is designed like a webcomic. Almost every page has a comments section, with behind-the-scenes information from the creators. The notes and preliminary sketches are often more entertaining than the cartoons. Like many millennial comics, these strips tend to have no punch lines. Some end with an explanatory note, as in: “Editor’s note: If you were fluent in both crow demon and musical cyborg ninja, this strip would be hilarious.” The middle of the comic, however, is sometimes very funny. Two female characters interrupt a fight so Bravo Woman can say, “You’re totally ruining our Bechdel test score!” The book has all the elements of a great comic strip. The storylines are clever, and the characters are beautifully drawn—usually in the boldest primary colors. The elements just seem to be in the wrong order: Almost every climax is an anticlimax.

Readers may get tired of waiting for a punch line that never comes.