By Zack Quaintance — Olympia #1 is a comic for people who loves comics, who love the medium, love the history, and love the grandeur of the characters, concepts, and ideas it has kept alive for so many years. The first of five, this introductory chapter follows a protagonist named Elon, who is a latchkey kid that finds company and escape in comics. His adventure starts when, to borrow a turn of phrase from the preview text, “his favorite superhero, Olympian, comes crashing off the page and into reality.”

It’s a metafictional concept that runs through every aspect of this book, from the Jack Kirby-esque artwork to the way the hero is an homage to characters like Thor (sort of in the same way that Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer characters homage so many other familiar heroes), and it’s executed so incredibly well. Let’s start with the artwork. 

Artist Alex Diotto is colored here by Dee Cunniffe, and they both show an incredible amount of versatility throughout. Our opening pages, for example, see both creators expertly adding touches to establish them as events taking place within a comic book, with Diotto doing so via the famous Kirby crackle (among other touches) and Cunniffe deploying a corresponding color palette that almost looks like what one would find in newsprint comics, evocative as it is of a Sunday insert. By page four we have transitioned into the real world of the story, where we see the more realistic art and color scheme that will be deployed throughout the majority of the story.

It’s a great way to A. entertain, and B. set a meta tone that serves this story well, making the audience keenly aware of themselves as readers, both in the moment of the story and back when we were the young age of the protagonist. That’s the other thing that works so well in Olympia #1. As I noted at the start, this is really comic for readers who love comics. There has traditionally been quite a bit of wish fulfillment carried out within this medium. I suppose that’s what you get when the first character to become a true and lasting worldwide sensation in your medium is called Superman. Here the wish fulfillment is a different sort of thing. The protagonist is not given powers, but rather the power to hang out with the characters he idolizes at a time in his life when he (and presumably us as readers...I know it’s the case for me) needs them most.

The central tension of the story is the hero’s loneliness as a latchkey son of a single mother, with his idolization of fantasy. The escapism he feels is palpable throughout. It is also, however, an oversimplification to say that escapism is all that’s for sale here. I won’t spoil it, but there are some key moments in this story when the darkness of our real world ensnares some of the fantasy heroes, too. 

It just all adds up to a really entertaining page-turner of a first issue with a lot to offer long-time comic book readers, as well as anyone who has come to care for the history of the medium for any reason. I for one am very excited to see where it all goes.

Overall: Olympia #1 is a perfect comic for readers who love comics, offering a blend of metafictional elements with familiar themes of childhood escapism. It is not to be missed. 9.5/10

Olympia #1
Story: Tony and Curt Pires
Script: Curt Pires
Artist: Alex Diotto
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Micah Meyers
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

Read more great comic book reviews here!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.