Prodigy: The Icarus Society

Prodigy #2

by Mark Millar (Writer), Matteo Buffagni (Illustrator), David Curiel (Colorist)

THE MAGIC ORDER / KING OF SPIES writer MARK MILLAR is back with his favourite creation EDISON CRANE and this time he's brought along the amazing STAR WARS artist MATTEO BUFFAGNI to blow you all away. Edison Crane is the world's smartest man, but what happens when he's targeted by an entire CLUB of geniuses who also fly too close to the sun? Meet THE ICARUS SOCIETY.

Collects PRODIGY: THE ICARUS SOCIETY #1-5

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2023

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Jayson]

(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Sluggish thriller, full of filler/braggadocious strutting, feels incomplete, all awkward beats, and lots of corner-cutting.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-3 ◦ Issues #4-5

[Alexander Peterhans]

Edison Crane is a genius, but why does the rest of the world have to hear about it constantly? Ugh.

Crane is up against people who supposedly are smarter than him, but it's the Sherlock Holmes kind of smartness, it's all noticing stuff a normal human being never could notice and then magically knowing what comes next/has to be done next. It gets boring quickly, because they never do anything that will actually impress you by what they've thought up.

[Sean Gibson]

I like this series, he said, insightfully.

[Guilherme Smee]

Me lembro que quando li o primeiro volume de Prodígio, ainda numa amostra grátis da HQ distribuída na CCXP no estande da Netflix, gostei bastante da primeira edição. Um protagonista negro que é superinteligente e... zaz! resolve tudo! Mas aí fui pegar o encadernado pela Panini, quase um ano depois e foi um balde de água gelada de decepção tanto na arte como no roteiro. Essa edição, agora com a arte de Matteo Buffagni me empolgou mais. Isso porque ela tem diversos plot twists e mostram que o personagem não é tão fodão como pensava, mas perae, ele tem coração bom então ele é mais fodão sim. Também gostei que no fim das contas essa é um história sobre redenções e sobre buscas (por redenções) também. E lida com uma jornada e investigação sobre a cidade perdida de Shangri-Lá, que tem uns conceitos bem divertidos e interessantes. Claro, como não poderia deixar de ser, tem um monte de Markmillarzices, mas que eu relevei levando em conta que, né, é o Millar, dá um desconto pra ele, ele gosta de ser causativo, tadinho. Então no fim que gostei bem mais desse segundo volume que o primeiro, então foi uma redenção para o personagem do ponto de vista do leitor também.

[Dakota Morgan]

I thought the first Prodigy volume was aggressively dumb action nonsense and, well, this second volume is essentially more of the same. The world's smartest man is one-upped by an entire society of extremely smart people, all of whom are richer than God and have remarkable (some might say "super") abilities.

And yet...I really enjoyed The Icarus Society. The plot ultimately leads to Atlantis, revealing that this series was always intended to be more science fiction than realistic action/adventure. Matteo Buffagni's art is crisp and detailed, well suited to scenes of flashy exuberance.

Look, I can't claim this is a "good" book, but it's a nearly perfect popcorn read. The plot flies by, plot holes included. The art looks great. The characters are good at what they do (every single one of them). And you'll have a smile on your face the whole time.

[Matthew Ward]

3.75 stars. I actually enjoyed this volume of Prodigy more than I did the previous volume. There seemed to be more at stake with the chess match of intelligences with this book and though I saw much of what was going on ahead of time, there were still a couple nice surprises to be found.

[Judah Radd]

Better and more fun than volume one. I like this series a lot, even if it is pretty silly and predictable.

[Kevin Mullier]

Was cool to be up against other intelligent villians

[Rob Schamberger]

Super fun and absolutely gorgeous to look at!

[Jonathan Crabb]

The graphic novel series continues to be quite good. It is very Millar-esque in it's art and super-intelligent protagonist. It's wildly over the top and the reader has to roll with it. I think that is why I like the series. The art is quite good (though this book was bloodier than the first) and the story though not hugely complex was well executed. Looking forward to the last book in the series!

[Mik Cope]

A typical Millar turbo-charged adventure, with more blood splatter than I remember from the first volume. However, the plot actually revolves much more around questions of morality, choice and inner peace. Throw in Shangri-La and Atlantis and it's a rip-roarin' adventure which get one thinking about such lofty concepts.

[Justin Biondo]

Ok yeah this one was a lot more fun of the two volumes so far, still not super sold on the premise but it’s a fun read

[Zachary Savage]

Not as good as the first volume, but it had some nice world building. Looking forward to reading the third volume

[Subham]

This was a fun read!

We get to see Edison crane go up against Professor Tong and stop his plans and then seeing it was an elaborate plan by Tong to pull him and then meeting Felix Koffka, another intelligent guy who was behind it all and then learning about the Icarus society and then learning about Atlantis and how that connects to Shangri-La and going there, and finding ancient/strange people from the past and its actually pretty cool, I love the twists there, its kinda like indigo tribe from Green lantern and I love the great action there and how it tests Edison character and I like how crazy and over the top is, maybe not the greatest but you will enjoy it and its a great sequel!

I really like how they set up the next volume and seems like it will humanize Edison as he has been so OP, but you know it will be fun to see that and also I like how they explored Shangri-La here and good twists with it essentially!

[RunningRed NightBringer]

Ethan Crane is the smartest man in the world. Think of every smart person trope or scene you've seen in comics or movies and Ethan has mastered them all. Sherlock scans, Mind Palaces, watching multiple TV shows, photographic memory and recall.
And his curse is that he bores easily.
He could easily be an annoying Mary Sue character except Millar builds a pretty good story around him.
Silly escapist fun. One could criticize it, but it's just a power-fantasy for those of us who like our protagonists smart and clever. Cause sometimes we like heroes who out-think, rather than out-punch their opponents.

[Sebastian M.]

A brisk, Uncharted-esque adventure.

Hits:
-Fun, pulpy action storytelling with plenty of twists and turns.
-Incredible feats performed by both protagonist and antagonists that are fun to see realized.
-A series of sprawling and fantastical settings.

Misses:
-The story's very fast paced, leaving little room for character development or attachment.
-Multiple grand ideas are thrown at you at once, making it difficult for all of them to breathe/be registered by the reader.

[Rahul Nadella]

Prodigy: The Icarus Society features the return of Edison Crane, with a story that rivals and even exceeds some of the biggest action movies ever put to the screen. The action is visually stunning and the imagery is as compelling as the story. Edison Crane may be a genius but the way he escapes his captors in ‘The Prodigy: The Icarus Society' is one of the oldest tricks in the book. A trick that weakens what should have been a grand and verbose finale to an otherwise engaging series.

[Roman Jones]

This was fun. I liked that Edison Crane met his match with the Icarus Society, a group of geniuses arguably smarter than him. Crane needed his own Moriarty in a way, and I’m glad Millar thought so too. There’s some actual character development here for Crane, and volume 3 promises more to come. I’m interested to see where this goes.

[Jerome Robinson]

entertaining but not as good as the first one.

Interesting story and decent art work but not as good as the first volume. However if you like the character you won’t be disappointed.

[Susana Calvo]

Al igual que el anterior volumen es una delicia de dibujo, color y diseño editorial. EN cuanto a la trama mejora un poco, sigue cayendo en tópicos, pero es algo más original. No obstante me parece que es un continuo dux es machina.


Se deja leer, pero no vaya con muchas pretensiones.

[Allen Setzer]

Much better than the first volume except for the art. The story and pace was much better. Crane was less of a dick in this volume so it was easier to care about him and his adventure. Hopefully we can get another volume more like this than the first.

[Craig]

This is better than the first volume, but really not by much...

[Anwar Russell]

3.5/5

[Paul W.]

This did not have the trademark nihilism but did employ some ultra violence. It's weird that the world's smartest man could be was out planned. But it was still entertaining.