As with all reviews on this website, our goal is not to provide a complete overview of the book; rather, it is to examine how the book relates to the meaning of life.
Mid-Life Crisis is a comic book series that started in 2017 and was written by Buddy Scalera and penciled by Andy Seabert. The series revolves around an aging, perhaps even as some would say, a washed-up hero known as Crisis.
Issue number one in the series opens with the common theme that gets even the best of us thinking about life; that theme ... death, and Cathode, the hero that died, was just another old-time hero that people pretty much forgot. As such, some of his older peers went to the funeral, while most of the younger generation skipped it.
This gets the bulletproof Crisis thinking. He has received some recognition, but not quite enough to become famous. What makes the difference between those heroes that have "made it" and those that didn't? Well, it seems to boil down to whether or not a regular person asks one of these saviors about their origin story, i.e., asks how a hero became a superhero. But, for poor old Crisis, no one has asked him.
In issue number two, Crisis dies and goes to Valhalla. Reflecting on having died, he is kind of sad. But no worries, he is brought back to life and shortly after being brought back, he runs into an ex-villain named Zebra, while shopping at a local grocery store. Yes, even superheroes have to shop. Unlike Crisis, Zebra has retired and returned to normalcy, even starting a family. You see, Crisis is married but has no kids, is still holding on to the dream of becoming great. Though, being that Crisis' only superpower is being thick skinned, that is going to be tough. Is meaning found in fulfilling the dream or in normality, and in everything normality brings with it—family, 9-5 job, etc.
Issues one and two went on sale in 2017, but no further issues were released. As such, ironically, the series itself had a bit of a mid-life crisis. Although we reached out to Buddy and Andy for an update on whether the final two issues of the series would be released, we received no response. So we have to assume that after nearly three years since the last release, the series has been abandoned in the middle. With each issue being only 26 pages in total, there isn't a ton of content. Mid-life Crisis had a great start and ended with one hell of a cliffhanger.
If the final two issues are ever released, we'll do our best to update this post.