Introducing…Prodigy

A new star is on the rise. His name is Edison Crane.

And he is a Prodigy.

This is definitely another hit of a comic for me, from master creator, Mark Millar, responsible for such prominent and successful titles for both Marvel, DC and Image like Civil War, Marvel Ultimates, Superman, JLA, Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Wanted and most recently The Magic Order.

This debut issue, which is the second collaboration between Millarword and Netflix, starts off and introduces readers to a precocious eleven-year old who just won the inter-school polo cup match in Massachusetts back in 1993. He may have won the day but not in the eyes of his older team mates who beat him up. Indeed a matter of bruised egos.

But being the prodigy that he is, Edison is able to quickly learn that whatever he focuses his mind on. Following his beating, he plotted his revenge and merely had to watch every kung-fu movie, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan and Jean Claude Van Damme in order to learn some fierce karate moves that he lays on his bullies. Another sampling of his uncanny intelligence was when he operated on his classmate in their own home, much to the surprise of his father who then was just newly appointed, Secretary of State.

His mind is so brilliant that he is able to engage several Chess champions all at once while simultaneously thinking of designing a missile that will divert an incoming asteroid! He was also able to ride a motorcycle over the Grand Canyon after being set on fire, only to safely land on the other side in a makeshift pool that quickly doused the flames upon landing. All of what he has learned is not even alluded to some photographic memory. Indeed his capacity to learn and to synthesize information and knowledge is almost superhuman.

Indeed, there is nothing that Edison Crane cannot do.

His talents seem to be limitless to a point that it has alerted a member of the CIA, who enlists him for a covert mission. It involved investigating an alien ship that crash landed on earth. And while the occupants who died upon landing were homo sapiens and did not resemble nor fit any preconceived notions that we may have regarding extra terrestrials, it nonetheless confirmed Edison’s suspicions all along. That the deceased teams are from a parallel Earth who came over to observe us and that invasion is imminent.

Just like his recent new and successful series, The Magic Order, that focuses on the mafia of magic, Millar has once again given us a new character to lord over and to cheer for. While Edison is the genius that he is, we have yet to see and learn what drives him to do what he does. Surely, for a man who can do anything (almost), there must be a purpose that moves him to do what he does. Not just merely to test his limits and allow those very same limitations to define the extent of his capabilities, but also the emotional core that drives any man to perform acts of altruism and selflessness.

While this is only the maiden issue and we are not yet given the entire picture and scope of Edison Crane, I would like to see more of the man within and behind Edison. Why does he continue to seemingly be at everyone’s beck and call for a demonstration of his brilliance and love of spectacle and that he rarely says no whenever invited to? Why even accept these invitations at all? We know that he is rich and runs a business that I would not be surprised if it rivals the wealth of Gotham’s Bruce Wayne, but no man is perfect and no man is that good. No man is without flaws. Hopefully Mark Millar will be able to answer all questions and suspicions that we eager readers may have as the series progresses.

And if in case, you are the type of comic book reader who collects several issues for the covers alone, you will be pleasantly rewarded by having in your collection all 3 variant covers of the introductory issue as it forms into one tryptych cover that connects all 3.

Till then we would have to wait for the next issue to drop come January 9, 2019.

I personally can’t wait. Time to re-read this again. And you will too once you get it and try it on for size. Who knows you might even be inspired to learn a thing or two….or three.