One-Star Squadron

“Superman-Level Service at Bizzaro Prices” is what’s promised by the Heroz4U app.  Do you need some super-security at your next corporate meeting?  Do you need someone with a little extra to sign autographs at your local convention?  Or do you just want a hero to show up and wish you a happy birthday?  Then this is the app for you!  So long as you’re not expecting to see Superman, or Wonder Woman, or Batman, or Aquaman, or Green Lantern, or Cyborg, or any other A-or-B-list hero offering their services.  However, if you’re cool with the likes of Red Tornado, Power Girl, G.I. Robot, the Heckler, Flying Fox, or the uh… Minute Man then this app has you covered!

“One-Star Squadron” comes to us from writer Mark Russell and artist Steve Lieber.  I went into it expecting a kind of superhero workplace comedy about heroes and heroines who were going to have trouble adapting to this new gig-based economy, particularly with regards to their egos.  There’s a little bit of that here as office manager Red Tornado has manage the many and varied personalities around him, particularly that of the not-cut-out-for-this-at-all Minute Man.  What I wound up getting was a somewhat more serious story about how the gig economy knows no mercy, particularly when the people in charge are all about trying to make as much money as possible before they’re found out.

This kind of bait-and-switch can work if the thing doing the replacing is better than what it has replaced.  The problem is that the light, breezy tone this miniseries strikes at first is at odds with how things steadily get worse for everyone involved.  Lieber does his best to manage these conflicting tones, but you’re ultimately left with a story that transforms itself into a low-key bummer.  Russell may be writing about the problems that plague our own world here, but the humor and drama he wants his story to have are ultimately at odds with each other and leave the final product as a lukewarm disappointment.