Last week I shared a trailer for the new comic book Raising Dion. This new series is about a single mom who is raising a seven year old boy who has superpowers. She has to teach him how to use his powers without burning the house down and she has to keep him safe from mysterious forces that seem to be out to get him. I loved the trailer so much that even though I’ve already posted it, I’m posting it again at the end of this very short review. I also loved the trailer so much that even though the first issue of the comic is available for download for free, I bought it anyway because a concept this great deserves my money.

The first issue is in my hands, and here are my first impressions:

I love the art.

The art is very detailed and painter-like and warm. I especially like how different pages have different color tones that help set the mood of the story. We know that the mom loves her son from the very first pages, because of the rich earth tones in the pages (alien stuff that signals danger is icy blue).

I love, love, love that this is is a story about a mother.

Look, I get it, fiction. Moms are a buzzkill. There you are trying to win battles in Narnia and your mom is all, “It’s snowing out there, put on your coat, what have I told you about following strangers around just because they offer you candy, put that sword down before you poke your eye out.” But moms are also badass purely in the sense that we get through every single day. And single moms with special needs kids are Super Badass. So I’m happy to see some mom representation here, and thrilled to see an African-American mom. I also love seeing what parenting is like for her day to day (“Don’t you dare float those cookies into your mouth!”) and I hope we see more of that. Dion seems like neither a horrible brat nor a convenient little angel – he’s a seven-year-old boy to the core.

There are so many places this story can go.

This comic starts off with the backstory – how did Dion wind up with super powers? And it looks like there’s a ton of backstory. Then there’s a ton of, for lack of a better word, forward-story since judging from the cover Dion is being followed by guys in suits and sunglasses (the standard uniform of creepy conspiracy guys).

Here’s the trailer, now go read the comic! I’ve watched this video about ten times and every single time I laugh my head off and then I get all weepy.