Teenager Ben Banks wakes up from a tragic accident – which sadly claims the life of his father – with super powers. Before he knows what’s going on, he’s caught between an incredibly shady government agency and a team of super powered individuals who seek to protect Ben and those like him.

Adam Wheeler and Benjamin Nunn’s superhero story The Secret Protectors gets off to a cracking start in this first volume, with a diverse cast of characters and a tale that ends up being more layered than its opening issue may suggest.

Nunn brings a great sense of clarity to the storytelling via his artwork, which definitely improves with each issue.

Wheeler’s script keeps the action flowing and piles on the intrigue, with both the heroic superteam and their associates, as well as the shadowy organisation they’re opposing, having more to them than meets the eye.

It’s a fast paced, exciting read and it’s great to see indie creators knock it out of the park so successfully with a comic that could have simply relied on tropes and clichés, but instead forges its own path through well trodden territory.

This collected volume also has a wealth of supplemental material if you want a deeper dive into the characters and settings, as well as more artwork and articles from the creators themselves.

Though you can read issues of The Secret Protectors at GlobalComix, the second collected volume is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter – and you can pick up the first volume as part of your pledge, should you want to contribute and help volume 2 come to fruition.

You can pledge at varying levels for volume 1 and 2 via Kickstarter here.

I’d highly recommend The Secret Protectors; it’s a very well produced, exciting comic that’s got a great future ahead of it.

It’s a great time to get yourself up to speed with the series too – so what are you waiting for?

Many thanks to Benjamin Nunn for providing me with a digital copy of The Secret Protectors Vol 1 for review purposes.