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Devil’s Due’s newest
series “The Odd Squad” is like The X-Files is headed
by two of the three chicks from “Mean Girls,” and
yet in spite of my inherent annoyance with the trite
dialogue and cheesy pop culture references, I really
enjoyed it. As a guilty pleasure, “The Odd Squad” is
a routine science fiction supernatural comedy series
about a bubbly blond and her equally bubbly blonde
sister who are asked to head a branch of the Office
of Dimensional Defense to investigate the
paranormal. Charlotte Springs is a simple college
professor who isn’t as dumb as she looks, and she is
forced to work with Frank Flood, a local stiff
working for the government who has to team with both
sisters to explore why the president’s son is
turning in to a beast during the night. And by
beast, I mean literal bipedal hairy beast. While
“The Odd Squad” can be bothersome with the attempted
comedic dialogue that’s either flat or just plain
annoying, the storyline actually works once you get
in to it, and I was rather surprised to find myself
chuckling at Flood pointing a gun at a professor
dressed in a chicken outfit.
Apparently something is
happening in Oregon that no one can explain and the
anomalies become even weirder when a woman is found
flying above an officer with large wings, picking
flowers. In spite of the occasionally irksome
dialogue, the characters are genuinely funny.
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Cindy started out as
a nuisance and quickly became a source of
comedic relief, while Mr. Apollo is hysterical
as the mentalist assigned to the team who may or
may not be a complete fraud. And let’s not
forget the Trekkie scientist. Charlotte Springs
is actually not as vapid a character as she is
perceived to be in the opening pages and her
depth becomes apparent as the first issue trogs
along.
Flood is also a great straight man who is teamed
with a batch of weirdos and losers he’ll have to
endure for the series, like it or not. I could
easily imagine him being played by Adam Baldwin,
should a movie be made. You know it will. While
the issues aspires at Mel Brooks level of humor
and puns, it can never quite get there frankly
because it’s a fifty fifty bet most of the one
liners will either be rib tickling funny, or so
utterly hideous, and writer Todd Livingston
really seems to be looking for a balance with
the paranormal activity and the slapstick with
the mini-series. The Fraim Brothers art work is
fantastic providing the right tone of light
hearted tongue in cheek character designs that
keep this an easy read. Though it may eventually
be a series, issue 1 of 3 for “The Odd Squad” is
a fun comic and I’ll keep up with it.
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