For me, the telling sign of an excellent book is that as soon as I finish it, I immediately turn to page one and start all over again, because I just don’t want it to end. I didn’t want Battling Boy to end. It’s that good. And the second read-through was in some ways more enjoyable than the first read-through.

The first thing I noticed about Battling Boy when reading it was how kinetic the art is. Paul Pope captures movement in Battling Boy like no other book on the market right now. This helps make Battling Boy work very well, because the story of Battling Boy is that of a 13 year old super-powered boy, who must leave the confines of his cool cosmic super-powered town to go prove himself in battle against monsters before returning home.

Spoiler: Battling Boy doesn’t appear on page 1. But when he does appear, Pope mirrors the layout of the first page to introduce us to Battling Boy. I liked this technique a lot, as the mirrored panel layout immediately suggested that what we were seeing was an ordinary day in the life of Battling Boy. As Battling Boy and the reader would both find out, that day would be far from ordinary.

I love how creative Paul Pope is with the superpowers he gives his characters. It’s not just the usual super-strength and flying. Sure, there is super-strength and flying, but it’s not just that. In one scene, Battling Boy gets the powers of a T-Rex because of the T-Rex image woven onto his shirt. He has a collection of similar shirts, all with different creatures on them. How cool is that?

This shirt! I want it!

First Second, the publisher of Battling Boy, has already announced a prequel to Battling Boy which will star supporting character Aurora West, the super-cool daughter of Monstropolis protector Haggard West. Aurora was my favorite character in Battling Boy, so I am definitely in for The Rise of Aurora West! Paul Pope will be cowriting this book with JT Petty. David Rubin will be handling art.

The Rise of Aurora West will be released in 2014.

Battling Boy is definitely one of the best comic books that I have read in 2013. It’s inventive, action packed and gorgeous! I would recommend this book to fans of The Legend of Zelda and superhero comic fans that are looking for something new and exciting.

You can buy Battling Boy now at your local comic book store and on Amazon.