Sundowners #3
Dark Horse
Words: Tim Seeley
Pictures: Jim Terry

I was wondering the other day, “How does Spider-Man, or Captain America, or any of those super dudes, how do they mow their yard?”  I mean they have to have a yard right?  Unless they all live in apartments, so if that’s the case, “How do they do their grocery shopping?”  In other words, the day to day lives of superheroes has to be pretty similar to our lives right?  So what does this have to do with Sundowners #3?  Not much really, but in a grander scheme it does. 

Superheroes have been done for ages.  And we’ve seen a bunch of books have that have given us a “new” take on heroes.  We’ve seen crazy, normal, abnormal, completely outrageous and everything in between.  But in Sundowners #3, Tim Seeleys’  take on heroes struck me as not just tragic, but sad as well.  And that’s a good thing.  I mean, we’ve seen superheroes portrayed as crazy before, but the heroes in Sundowners seem to be the only people who think they’re heroes.  The general population sees these heroes as disturbed, or crazy.  And their form of crazy is much more relate-able, much more real.  Tim Seeley has made this issue of Sundowners very personal for our band of heroes, and it’s quite tragic.  I’m not sure if Mr. Seeley is trying to shine a light on the issues of mental health in our society, but he’s definitely revealing some truths about our current condition.  People with mental health issues have very real problems, and it’s easy to say that those people are just “crazy”, or to label them as “lazy” or “stupid” or “whatever”.   Issue #3 of Sundowners illuminates the fact that our heroes have legitimate issues/problems.  And now, those issues/problems are starting to take their toll in very real and real life ways for them.

My hat is off to Tim Seeley for delving into the issue of mental health, and while not shying away from the seriousness of the topic, still managing to create an entertaining story.  Tragic?  Yes.  But so worth the read.

4.5 out of 5