Finding Courage

Years ago, the costumed crimefighter known as Courage suffered a defeat at the hands of the nefarious criminal Volatile. Unable to cope with his failure, Courage retired in disgrace.

But now... he's back, and ready to set things right.

The book is written by Dino Caruso, best known here for his work on Gryfalcon (see label at right).  The rather splendid cover is by David Cutler.

This is a sweet deal that I stumbled into while checking out the new releases on drivethru comics.  The pdf version of the book checks in at a healthy 106 pages for only $2. It is a compilation of what was originally meant to be a four-issue limited series.

The solicitation text above doesn't quite touch on it, but age is also a challenge for Courage.  His retirement lasted nine years.  He returns to action at age 38, generally considered past the proverbial best-before date for that kind of gig.  He is keenly aware that he's not as quite as capable as he used to be.   His acceptance of that fact and his adaptation to it are the most interesting aspects of the book, in my opinion.

Now as is often the case, Canadian "status" can be difficult to assess when nationality is not particularly relevant to the story.  One member of the supporting cast is a military general who is clearly American, however Courage twice makes reference to Kingston Pen.

Better yet, the legendary super team in the Courage universe is named The Original Six.  More a hint than proof of Canuckhood, I suppose.  I do know the name firmly falls under the "I wish I'd have thought of that" category.

The seeds for this book were first planted in 2007.  Mr Caruso goes over the history of the project on his blog.  For that matter, he discusses a great many other ones too, so you may want to take some time to surf around.