The core concept of Jacked, from Supernatural‘s Eric Kripke and artist John Higgins, seems pretty simple. A middle-aged man takes one of those sketchy “herbal supplements” and discovers they not only actually work, they give him straight-up superpowers. But what happens when you take a few too many?
Jacked has been impressive in how Kripke and Higgins have gotten into their main character’s head. Josh, our dumpy middle-aged unemployed self-loathing “hero,” struggles with age and feeling useless. But when he discovers he’s somehow a superhero, he doesn’t turn into a jerk banging the hot girl next door or going around beating up younger guys for laughs. Kripke deftly twists the usual tropes into pretzels, as Josh finds himself in over his head and discovering that superpowers don’t give you self-confidence.
Similarly, Higgins has been turning out some uproarious art and visceral action. Again, he avoids tropes; if Josh drops a dumpster on some poor bastard, he’s going to the hospital, or the morgue. Of course, that assumes Josh can keep it together long enough to do that, in this preview of Jacked #5:
To see if anybody survives Josh’s rampage through his own subconscious, including Josh, check out Jacked #5, in stores and available on digital March 23.