• Story: James Tynion IV
• Art/Colour: Michael Dialynas

I have to say I’m getting bored with superhero comics and the same old characters doing the same old things before they’re reset ad infinitum. Boom! seem to be doing something different, and James Tynion IV’s latest – Wynd – is an exercise in what great storytellers are capable of when free from corporate diktat. Wynd is a boy with a magical heritage and lives in Pipetown in defiance of the humans’ Blood Laws, but he’s happy, he’s protected by his friend Oakley, and spends his breaks at the diner ogling Thorn Cherrywood, the royal gardener’s son, who in turn seems to have a thing for Pipetown’s Prince Yorik. Michael Dialynas’ cartoony, perfectly judged art is spot on for the young adult genre, happy and light, whilst never losing track of the dark subtext that keeps coming up – there’s war between humans and magical beings, which may still be continuing elsewhere, and the reluctant prince is in danger if he doesn’t sacrifice his principles and support it.

There’s so much to enjoy here, from the whimsical tone, to the very heavy LGBT inclusion, and the way in which Dialynas’ art and colours make the emotions of both characters and scene immediately clear. There’s time to feel what they’re feeling (the Sprytle’s fate was heartbreaking) and time to pick up the hatred some humans have for ‘the weirdness’ (with the huge implicit subtext). This isn’t superheroics, it’s a story with delightful characters who I felt immediately invested in, to whom anything might happen, and which is intensely fun to read. Kudos to Tynion and Dialynas for crafting a YA fantasy story whose themes are all too current, and populating it with far more interesting characters than the same old, unchanging superheroes.