F.A.R.M. System
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
They’re superstrong, but are they powerful enough for the big leagues? If superheroes were real, they’d be a lot like pro athletes. In this quirky graphic novel, go behind the scenes with all the heroes waiting for their big breaks. For every hero who saves the galaxy and makes the front page, there are a dozen staffers working behind the scenes…and a hundred up-and-comers hoping to take his place. F.A.R.M. System is your ticket to the hidden world of superpowered individuals hoping to "make the Big Leagues.” In the Farm System, having an incredible and unique power is only the first step. Guided by an army of agents, managers, and experts, recruits must undergo rigorous psychological evaluations, harassment and sensitivity seminars, marketing and endorsement workshops, and costume design meetings, all to boost their chances of recruitment into an A-list superhero team. Some recruits make “the Bigs.” Some have fleeting moments of glory, then lose it all. Some take “Blue Cowl” gigs as superpowered bodyguards for famous actors or powerful CEOs. Some flounder in the System for years, never getting “the call.” And some find success by joining teams of a... less reputable ilk. Following the profound pop-culture satire of Three Fingers, The King, and BB Wolf and the Three LPs, award-winning graphic novelist Rich Koslowski examines the hopes, disappointments, perseverance, and triumphs of the super-gifted...and the sometimes drastic lengths they will go to to achieve fortune and fame.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Make up superhero teams and apply the business of Major League Baseball: that's the conceit behind this inventive but unsatisfying graphic novel by Koslowski (Three Fingers). At the Free Agent Recruit Management (aka F.A.R.M.) base camp, wannabe heroes train to become the best in their field, motivated by the biggest payout. Two characters take the spotlight: never-named "New Kid," searching for his superheroic identity, and grizzled, tough guy The Gymnast (looking and acting a lot like Wolverine), who quits the league in search of a missing comrade. Short subplots of other heroes are threaded through, and it all gets mish-mashed, with the main plot mired in trivia and flashbacks. The conclusion reveals a hither-to-unseen hero-killer; it comes, to extend the book's own metaphor, out of left field. Koslowski's action sequences are overcomplicated and as hard to follow as the plot. (The narrative often grinds to a halt as talking heads take over.) It's a nifty concept that just gets lost along the way, overpacked with insider references. This one earnestly swings for the fences but strikes out.
