What is luck? The term means different things to different people. Some people think that luck is just the ability to take advantage of circumstances. Some think that it’s an innate ability to manipulate probabilities. Some people think luck is just a misunderstanding of privilege. And some people, well, some people think that luck is all about wearing the same dirty clothes and carrying the same shiny trinkets every day.
But what if luck was something else? What if, instead of an ethereal concept or a manipulation of probabilities, luck was a scientifically verifiable characteristic that could be tracked, recorded, and used to predict real outcomes?
And what if its avatars were big, glowy gods?
That takes us to this week’s book, Good Luck from Boom Studios. Let’s check it out and see what happens when our only hope is the unluckiest children in the world.
Here’s the blurb: What if Luck was quantifiable, and something everyone was born with? Everyone, except the Unfortunates – teenagers born with absolutely zero luck. Now with the world mysteriously plunged into chaos and reality itself threatened, they will be our only hope to save the world. Our last hope is those with no chance of success… the only thing anyone can wish them is Good Luck. A bold new original series for fans of Seven Secrets and Runaways from Matthew Erman (Long Lost, Power Rangers: Sins of the Future) and Stefano Simeone (Mega Man: Fully Charged) about defying fate against impossible odds.
BOOM! Studios is a publisher that always blips on and off my radar. I generally avoid licensed titles, and that’s a big part of their bread and butter. That being said, when it comes to the world of urban fantasy, few publishers can boast of the talent and creativity that BOOM! brings to the table. Titles such as Something is Killing the Children, Once and Future and Folklords are some of my current favourites from their line-up, but a quick glance through their series pages shows BOOM! is dedicated to the fantasy genre.
Good Luck fits well into that vibe. This is a very heavy first issue with a lot of stuff being thrown at the reader right away, so it might take a few reads to fully grasp what is going on, but trust me, it’s worth the work.
In Good Luck, we’re quickly introduced to a world where luck is not only something tangible, it is also measurable. See, the goddess of bad luck, and the god of good luck came to Earth, touched each other, and suddenly there is a massive bang of energy. The result of this is that where the two met is a chaotic explosion of luck forces that are tearing at the world, and at the center is a singularity that the government wants to save the world. Or, at least that’s what they are telling the unlucky teens that they have tasked with the chore of getting to the center.
And by unlucky I don’t just mean that they had the bad fortune to qualify for a trip into this nightmare of chaos, I mean that they have absolutely zero luck at all as measured by the new science that has evolved on this world. Anything and everything they attempt to do goes wrong, and even when their bodies are absolutely flooded with good luck energy they still are unable to breach the center.
And then a mysterious child shows up and achieves in one day what they have struggled to do for years. Who is this kid? How does this world work? What are the gods of luck up to with all of this? We don’t get any answers to these questions in issue one, but if it is anything to go by, we’re going to have a heck of a good time finding out.
Good Luck comes to us from a great creative team, with Matthew Erman taking on the writing duties hot off of a much-praised run on Power Rangers: Sins of the Future, and Stefano Simeone, whose art absolutely dazzles and pops, and give the book a wonderful, chaotic feeling throughout.
So call your LCS and get this added to your pull! Until next week, stay safe.
