Random Reviews: Project Superpowers
Too many characters prevent this ambitious vision of modernized Golden Age heroes from shining as it should
—by Nathan on June 18, 2026—
I've been on a bit of an Alex Ross kick lately, reviewing narratives that he not only illustrated for both DC and Marvel but contributed to for Image Comics. For Astro City, unlike Marvels or Justice, Ross only supplied the cover art, which I suppose is one connection between that blog and today's review.
The other is the presence of Jim Krueger, Ross' partner-in-comics on Justice, who co-plotted this series for Dynamite Entertainment. Similar to another Ross/Krueger collaboration, Marvel's Earth X series, Project Superpowers begins with an artistic vision brought to the page through Ross' imagination and Krueger's willingness to wrap words around such ideas. Justice was a throwback to an earlier era of DC superheroes, drawing favorite heroes into the present with the personalities and characteristics that defined them in earlier decades. Project Superpowers, though denied Ross' artistic genius outside covers and a hint of interior work, is that idea without the confines of DC continuity.
These are not your dad's superheroes; more like your grandad's, or maybe even your great-grandad's. Okay, yeah, maybe your great-grandad read Batman and Superman as well, but guys like the Green Lama, Fighting Yank, and the Black Terror ran around way back when without the benefit of receiving the same level of continual exposure and frequent brushes with re-creation over the last several decades. In some alternate universe, maybe Tim Burton directed Michael Keaton in the 1989 Black Terror movie, but in our reality, we'll have to settle for Krueger and Dynamite roping these characters into the present day.
As Bob Benton, Black Terror's alter ego, may have said in his first standalone cinematic outing: "You wanna get crazy? Let's get crazy!"
Project Superpowers
Writers: Jim Krueger, with Alex Ross
Pencilers: Alex Ross, Douglas Klauba, Steve Sadowski, Carlos Paul, Wagner Reis, Marcelo Mueller
Inkers: Alex Ross, Douglas Klauba, Steve Sadowski, Carlos Paul
Colorist: Alex Ross, Debora Carita
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Issues: Project Superpowers #0-7
Volume Publication Date: May 2009
Issue Publication Dates: January 2008-February 2008, April 2008-August 2008
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
I've referenced my longstanding love for James Robinson and Paul Smith's The Golden Age on this blog before, and as I read this volume, that narrative remained lodged in my mind as a benchmark. Robinson and Smith create a near-perfect narrative that generates empathy for heroes of a bygone era. Alan Scott's Green Lantern pops up, but most of these folks are obscure heroes predating the comic industry's Silver Age, and in just a handful of issues, the creators make you genuinely care for these people and their arcs, even if you've never heard of them before. You don't need to pick up old comics to understand context; you just go with it.
Krueger, along with his team of artists, is hoping for a comparable result, reintroducing several public domain superheroes published decades earlier by different companies. Up for grabs, these heroes aren't unlike the pulp characters of old whose adventures I've occasionally reviewed in other blogs–these characters are prototypes, born in a very different age, brought into the modern day in the hopes they'll catch interest with modern readers.
The results by Krueger and his team here are a little south of effective.
Googling "Project Superpowers," I first came across the series' Wikipedia page, followed immediately by a Reddit post titled "What ever happened to Project Superpowers?" The redditor asking notes they believed it was going to be the "next big thing," with the top comment refuting this. Another comment quotes a 2024 Alex Ross art book, where Ross mentions studio interference preventing the concept from heading in the direction he and Krueger intended for the series. I do not doubt Dynamite screwing up the original plans–publisher intentions have waylaid interesting comics before–but I'm not sure if the series' central premise, as executed here, necessarily came with the quality needed to maintain staying power. You can't just blame the powers-that-be.
In concept, resurrecting old heroes and giving them a bit of a polish can be a strong idea. Again, check out The Golden Age. Heck, Stan Lee thawed out Captain America and had him join the Avengers and had Prince Namor surface to fight the Fantastic Four. From humble World War II origins, Steve Rogers went on to become one of the faces of the highest-earning film franchise of all time (and, if Marvel keeps getting their way, he'll keep coming back–'til he's 90!). Nuff said! The idea has legs, but you've got to root those legs in pretty firm ground for them to stand, and this is where Project Superpowers waffles. A good central concept executed in middling fashion.
If that's my thesis statement, I better back it up: the premise behind Project Superpowers works well enough. Bruce Carter, former hero the Fighting Yank, is haunted by both the ghost of his Revolutionary War ancestor and the personification of the American spirit. Something is wrong in the world, and the Yank is to blame. As a younger man, Bruce was convicted by his spectral ancestor to stop the evils of World War II by trapping his fellow mystery men in the mystical Pandora's Box (which is an urn–and you won't be allowed to be forget it!); unable to convince his friends to go peacefully, the Yank forced them into the box (urn!), and there they have been for the last sixty years, staving off insurmountable evil.
Maybe.
Krueger employs somewhat of an "unreliable narrator" technique to try and at least indicate that this isn't all up to snuff, using that to propel the primary plot forward when the series' assembled heroes are finally freed (not much of a spoiler–you thought the likes of Mr. Face and the death-defying Devil were gonna stay imprisoned like genies in that box (urn!) forever?). If anything, the tactic is utilized most for Yank's own narrative growth, ostracizing him from the superhuman community at large while providing him a means by which to grow. He's old, inching closer to death (which the American Spirit can help but remind him of endlessly), and is given one last opportunity to make amends for his mistake all those decades ago.
As a premise, it's fairly straightforward yet solid. Conflict is nicely generated between Yank and some of those who begrudge their imprisonment the most, such as the Black Terror, who basically swears vengeance on the old man once he's freed. More than any other character, Krueger allows Yank's own story and guilt to fuel his steps and guide him through the entire narrative. An action from decades past influences how he interacts with former allies, new enemies, and his own Ghosts of Americas Past. We get to, from a certain perspective, understand Bruce as a person, as this older man with deep regrets who just wants to make something right with the world before he reaches that often discussed end of his life.
The Yank is steered well enough, but it's elsewhere that Krueger scrapes along the shoals. We're reintroduced to several, several other heroes across these seven issues (not counting the prologue, which is mainly all about Bruce), and they all come across as pretty flat. Scenes shift at a rapid pace, giving brief glimpses of characters newly awoken, and fairly startled, by this brand new world, like a dozen Steve Rogerses thawing out of the ice. Their reactions are dealt with quickly, not allowed the weight they deserve. We're given neat snapshots–the Flame collapses beside a burning Hollywood Sign, wondering where his wife is; the Terror weeps on a mountainside, wondering where his old sidekick is; the Devil wanders through France, wondering where he is. Everyone's confused, a lotta folks are angry…
…but confusion and anger don't make much for characterization. I know this series would spawn some others, and while this volume doesn't end on a cliffhanger, there's the promise of more to come. Perhaps those later issues dove deeper into our heroes, but left here, we're given surface level examinations. Krueger's given himself a sizable cast to work with, though that's hardly cause for developmental issues. Other creators have worked phenomenally with team books. I would've appreciated more focus on individual characters themselves rather than brushing over possibly interesting subplots or chances for growth.
Krueger, I surmise, kept his characters to those sequences because he's also trying to weave in an entire plot outside of Yank and the returning heroes. This world is run by the Dynamic Family, headed by Dynamic Man, and though he doesn't come across as a brutal, corrupt Superman pastiche in the same vein as Homelander or Omni-Man, he's clearly our antagonist. He likes the level of control he and his family have leveraged over the world, and he's going to keep it that way no matter what. Similar to our heroes, his own characterization feels muted, left to a handful of scenes where he works to undermine the returning heroes' efforts to stop violence in the Middle East. Honestly, our more interesting antagonists are the hordes of Frankenstein-inspired soldiers our heroes consistently fight. In a great bit of worldbuilding, Krueger indicates that dead soldiers are stitched back together and reanimated as zombie-like drones, a clever ploy I wish this comic had utilized more frequently.
Perhaps the most endearing aspect of Project Superpowers is seeing older characters, serving as templates for later heroes, reborn in the modern era, given the facelifts they were denied while Captain America, Superman, Batman, and Prince Namor remained firmly in the public conscience. Fighting Yank can be considered a contemporary of Captain America, the biblical hero Samson's first comics appearance predated mythological hero Thor by decades, the Arrow had been hitting targets three years before Oliver Queen added "Green" to the name, and the Devil first lay claim to the moniker we now use for Matt Murdock's alter ego. War heroes, vigilantes, acrobats, androids, warriors…all spruced up and ready for their big debuts.
You can thank Alex Ross for the modernized looks, which certainly are appealing. A good chunk of this volume's final pages is dedicated to his character designs, juxtaposed against the original visuals he used for inspiration. Douglas Klauba, Steve Sadowski, Carlos Paul, Wagner Reis, Marcelo Mueller all do their best to hew to that vision, though there's something missing by not having Ross commit to the interior. He provides a visual or two–most strikingly, a portrait of Fighting Yank which would have been a crime painted by any other artist–but he mainly sticks to designs and covers. The other artists are good, providing decent details and storytelling, but the beauty Ross often provides just isn't there.
Project Superpowers is, without a doubt, a project about superpowers. It's an experiment, to test the viability of these older characters brought into the world of today (which, as of this writing, was nearly twenty years ago itself). The idea is there, the foundation. This is a story built upon the guilt racking one man and his attempts to staunch the bleeding of a problem he unwittingly created by trying to fix a different problem. In the Fighting Yank, we find an effort to create a character path. The problem is those efforts don't exist for other heroes, at least not here. Pieces linger–some heroes miss loved ones, others try to cope with suddenly entering the modern world–but they don't come together in the nice, completed puzzle Krueger and his artists hope. Maybe future issues found that coalescence, and maybe I'll pull together a few extra volumes someday to see if those pieces actually create a picture worthy of Alex Ross' touch.