Brian Buccellato and Stefano Simeone will bring a new hero to life in Midlife (Or How to Hero at Fifty!), a new series starting at Image Comics in October.
“I’m super excited to tell this weirdly personal story that is tonally closer to my recent Aftershock series, Chicken Devil,” said Buccellato. “It’s a combination of grounded, humorous, dark, and absurd—featuring a biracial 50-year-old rookie hero who accepts the challenge of using his newfound powers for good… even if he does have a bad back and creaky knees. It’s also an opportunity to tell a superhero story from a different point of view, with a protagonist who is half Chinese and half Puerto Rican and drawn from my own life experience as a father starting a new family again at 50.”
Here’s the description from Image:
Ruben Kwan is a 50-year-old firefighter who’s been afraid of fire his whole life. Instead of running into burning buildings, he pushes papers, living in the shadow of his father—who died a hero on the job. After 25 years in the LAFD, he’s firmly in the middle of an unremarkable life…until his new wife gets pregnant and a random act of courage reveals that Ruben is FIREPROOF! Readers won’t want to miss out on this totally relatable (sometimes cringey) story of a middle-aged dad who’s about to find out that his new powers have major strings attached.
“When Brian first talked to me about his idea for Midlife my son had just been born, so I can relate a lot with this,” Simeone said. “Ruben is 50 and I’m in my 30s, but I feel older. So now I just need superpowers. I hope people will enjoy this series, it has so much heart and action, I think we all need someone like Ruben to protect us in real life.”
Here’s a look at some interior pages from the first issue:
It arrives in stores Oct. 11.