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Side by Side : The Journal of a Smalltown Boy(Hardback) - 2011 Edition
Granted extraordinary cosmic powers, BLUE COMET, along with the sensational SUNSTAR defend GOLDEN BAY CITY against nefarious supervillains. As one of the city´s most celebrated and powerful heroes, there is nothing BLUE COMET can´t handle. However, one fateful encounter with Justin, SUNSTAR´S Brother, changes BLUE COMET forever and makes him the hero with two secret identities...
- GenresComics
Hardcover
First published April 15, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 22, 2008
Love the book. Found the comic online one day, and am so happy for the two authors that they got it published. I'm very happy to have this collection of comics, and think I may need more. I'm quite looking forward to the sequel.
July 14, 2025
I would rate it as PG-13 some nudity, but no full frontal two men in bed but no sex. He got a star knocked off because the dialogue was lame. Great graphics and fantastic story coming out of the closet down as a superhero.
July 31, 2016
I know that this is clearly supposed to be some cheesy, funny super hero story that on one side is not supposed to be taken seriously but also wants to deal with serious subjects like prejudice and discrimination against gay men. And in concept I am all for it, especially since major labels apparently prefer to make previously clearly straight characters suddenly gay (inside of the same continuity) instead of promoting and developing the LGBT characters that they already have.
But despite all of that, I cannot actually recommend this comic. You see, despite everything, this book is rather "meh" for me. In fact sometimes it became quite annoying, like when they time and again came up with the in-universe claim that there are no gay superheroes. As I said, it got annoying, quite fast in fact, and ruined the internal joke. And not only that, because some elements make the topic of homophobia in this world seem rather like a bad joke: a quite openly gay couple consisting of two African Americans (let's be honest here, how likely is it that "black" refers to anything else in an American comic?) seem to get along so easily that I have to wonder why the main superhero is in the closet to begin with. Sure there might be some homophobia within the superhero squad, however if their boss simply wants more merchandise I am sure he would use some gay superheroes to his advantage as in the wider society homophobia does not come along as an actual issue (except in a very blunt way). So this whole story feels pretty contrived, not to mention that it wasn't particularly engaging for me, and the twist was really something you could have seen coming a mile away. If this kind of silly if your thing, fine, but it is not my kind of silly.
But despite all of that, I cannot actually recommend this comic. You see, despite everything, this book is rather "meh" for me. In fact sometimes it became quite annoying, like when they time and again came up with the in-universe claim that there are no gay superheroes. As I said, it got annoying, quite fast in fact, and ruined the internal joke. And not only that, because some elements make the topic of homophobia in this world seem rather like a bad joke: a quite openly gay couple consisting of two African Americans (let's be honest here, how likely is it that "black" refers to anything else in an American comic?) seem to get along so easily that I have to wonder why the main superhero is in the closet to begin with. Sure there might be some homophobia within the superhero squad, however if their boss simply wants more merchandise I am sure he would use some gay superheroes to his advantage as in the wider society homophobia does not come along as an actual issue (except in a very blunt way). So this whole story feels pretty contrived, not to mention that it wasn't particularly engaging for me, and the twist was really something you could have seen coming a mile away. If this kind of silly if your thing, fine, but it is not my kind of silly.
April 15, 2015
I just am blown away by this graphic novel! I absolutely love comics and gay guys and whenever they are put together, it's an instant love for me! But this one is way better than the rest simply because it's like mainstream comics: it has super heroes!!! From my experience, I haven't seen another cross section in comics of gays and superheroes.
The one knock I have to this is it is a coming out story. I've been out so long, I really can't stand these kinds of stories. But I checked out the producers and it looks like there's a sequel! I'll definitely be ordering that next!!!
The one knock I have to this is it is a coming out story. I've been out so long, I really can't stand these kinds of stories. But I checked out the producers and it looks like there's a sequel! I'll definitely be ordering that next!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2014
This isn't a great comic, superhero or otherwise. However, there A&E so few gay comics out there that I'm willing to grade it on a curve. The art is lively and fun and the story is good, if a little rough. The dialogue can be a little hackneyed and there's a little too much of it, but it's not a bad effort, and I have hope that future comics will be a bit more polished.
November 1, 2015
A cute idea about a gay superhero and his boyfriend is well-executed visually, but let down by a hackneyed, cliched script.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews