Usually I’ll write my own plot synopsis for reviews, but the one on the back of the book for Warren Ellis’ and Paul Duffield’s comic book series Freakangels hits all the right notes, I think:

23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. 6 years ago, the world ended. This is the story of what happened next.

There’s more to it than this, of course. Those strange children-now-adults have dubbed themselves the freakangels, and they’ve settled in a flooded part of London called Whitechapel. Most of them are usually focused on protecting the survivors in Whitechapel – I say “most” and “usually” because they’re not always united in their goal. Complicating things is the fact that they had something to do with the cataclysm. Exactly what they did is revealed slowly, over the course of the story.

The main cast is huge, since Ellis and Duffield focus on each of the 12 freakangels at some point in the story. It’s quite a feat that each is distinct, then, and doesn’t become a caricature. None of them are your typical superheroes, though some of them are trying. I wouldn’t even say any of them are the Robert Downey, Jr. Iron Man-type superheroes: flawed, tortured, but still larger-than-life. Rather, these people seem very much “same size as life,” if you can say such a thing – they don’t have the witty comebacks all the time, they can be hurt (and not just in the final showdown), they deliberately make bad choices along with good ones, over and over. The knowledge that they’re somehow the cause of the suffering around them adds an important layer – and the way each freakangel deals with this knowledge is telling, too. The characters are just plain interesting, with complex relationships and personalities.

Part of what makes the series so good is the art by Duffield. I find that characters in a lot of comics – particularly those that have been ongoing for many years – blend together, even within single volumes. It forces the reader to rely on clothing choices or hairstyles to keep them straight. That’s not the case with Duffield’s illustrations, which are not only lovely, but also detail-rich and consistent from panel to panel. His characters are easily recognizable and diverse in appearance as well as personality. I also love the slightly muted color palette, which fits the mood of the story perfectly.

This is an adult comic with adult themes and language (frank talk of sex and lots of f-bombs), but I can certainly see it appealing to more mature teens. It feels like what a lot of the popular teen post-apocalyptic stories would be if the characters were 23 instead of 17. In fact, it could be described as an adult sequel to the YA story of what these people did as 17-year-olds. Because it’s a full story contained in six easy-to-digest volumes, it’s also a great series to hand to someone who may just be dipping their toes into comics. (No decades of background knowledge necessary!)

Freakangels is available in six print volumes, but it actually first appeared completely free and legal on the web: www.freakangels.com.