Review: 'Supurbia' returns to the delightfully soapy world behind the heroes

Boom! Studios’ silly, soapy ode to the real desperate housewives of superheroes is back this week as “Supurbia” becomes an ongoing.

The story picks up shortly after the end of Grace Randolph’s miniseries as the spouses and heroes settle in to life after the death of Meta Legion leader Marine Omega. The new Marine Omega and his wife, the enthusiastic Eve White, are living with the original Omega’s widow, Ruth Smith, trying to be nice but not realizing her deadly secret.

Eve is trying to organize the spouses into a strong support network, but many of them seem tied up in their own lives. Plus, there’s black sheep Helen Hart, an ex-con hiding her past who’s the wife of the team’s Superman stand-in, Sovereign.

Yes, the familiar archetypes are there: Batman (Night Fox), Wonder Woman (Batu), Captain America (Marine Omega), but Randolph tweaks them as she puts the spotlight more on the spouses. I keep using “spouses” because one of them is a guy, Batu’s mate, Jeremy Metzger.

Like any good soap, everyone has secrets, and the comic is full of melodramatic moments, nicely illustrated by the returning art team of Russell Dauterman and Gabriel Cassata. There’s beefcake, cheesecake and plenty of eye candy in his art, but he saves it for appropriate moments. It’s not all cleavage for the sake of cleavage, but when it’s there, it’s ample.

I thought the original miniseries did a great job of balancing its cast, throwing in some real superhero action to show the importance of the man and women (and children) behind the heroes. But it was a soap opera first, complete with backstabbing and murder.

And the new “Supurbia” looks like it will carry on just fine. I look forward to the ride.