While older viewers of Disney's Wreck It Ralph movie are sure to enjoy all the cameo appearances by real video game characters (Bowser, Sonic, QBert and Pac Man, just to name a few), the new characters are sure to inspire a loyal following in the younger generation. One of the most interesting characters is Calhoun, the ice blond, hard-as-nails sergeant in "Hero's Duty", the "Halo"-type game that Wreck It Ralph sneaks into so he can win a medal and remove his video game bad-guy stigma. Calhoun (voiced by Jane Lynch) owes her badass attitude to the fact that she was "programmed with the most tragic back story imaginable", but moviegoers only get a small taste of it because, after all, this is Ralph's story, not Calhoun's.
Did someone say "spin-off"? Finally, Calhoun gets to tell her own story in Hero's Duty, an interactive comic that explores the story behind the videogame. Actually, it isn't Calhoun who tells the story: it's told from the point of view of Dr. Brad Scott, a doctor who joins forces with Sergeant Calhoun and her Space Rangers to battle a horde of mutating cy-bugs. People who've watched Wreck It Ralph will recognize the cy-bugs and the Space Rangers, and they'll smile knowingly when Scott refers to Calhoun as "that dynamite gal", but you don't need to have seen the movie in order to enjoy the comic.
Hero's Duty is more than just a collection of screen shots of a comic book. Panels appear, one by one, as you tap on the screen (or you can set it to autoplay), accompanied with moving images and sound effects. You can switch to a bird's eye view of all the pages so you can skip directly from page 3 to page 13; however, I was disappointed that when you go back to close-up, reading mode, you cannot skip panels to move on to the next page and you cannot swipe back to get to the previous pages. And although 22 pages is standard for a comic book, you can't blame me for wishing the story lasted a bit longer. On the whole, for $1.99 (less than the price of most comic books), it's definitely worth the price -- a fun read about the dynamite gal who put the Hero in Hero's Duty!
Disclosure: I received a free download of Hero's Duty to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. Product information (in italics) is provided by the featured company/product. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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