Summer Reading

Mighty Love

DC Comics, 96 pp., $24.95

The whole secret identity thing is hell on a caped crusader's romantic life; just ask Clark Kent how snarky it made dating Lois. Now, writer-artist Howard Chaykin has some fun with sex and the single superhero, through a cop and lawyer who loathe each other by day but find a mutual attraction after dark when their masked alter egos cross crime-fighting paths. As superfolk, Iron Angel and Skylark are rather standard-issue, as is the case they investigate together (a bait-and-switch money-laundering scheme by one of the power elite). Chaykin seems more interested in what lies beneath the spandex – in the hearts and minds of these adventurers, who recognize in each other a shared mission and need for a divided lifestyle. And by having them not see that in their civilian selves, the writer gives superhero conventions a playful tweak. With its smart dialogue, action, and Chaykin's famously sexy and stylish pencils juicing up this comic affair, this story of two lone wolves becoming a dynamic duo is an engaging seasonal diversion, a sweet summer fling.