Product Description

Every girl thinks her boyfriend is a catch, but Georgetown bookseller Liz Donnelly's got bragging rights - she's dating Race Noble, the famous super-hero with the quick smile and quicker legs. Follow Race and Liz's whirlwind romancce, from the moment they meet, to their wedding ... and the tragic honeymoon. Suddenly, Liz is a stranger in a strange land - an everyday person living with a family of celebrity super-heroes! Behind the glamour and wonder lie dark secrets, ruthless ambition, and twisted desires.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #872244 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What if superheroes acted like the Kennedys, right down to the photo ops, sex scandals and undefinable charisma? Faerber and company explore that question in this story of Liz Donnelley, a new bride and widow of the youngest of the Noble superhero clan. The tale begins with a wedding reminiscent of Lady Diana's to Prince Charles, but when Liz's new hubby is killed on the honeymoon and she moves in with her in-laws, the narrative downshifts straight into Dynasty. Faerber succeeds in presenting a superhero soap opera. Unfortunately, there are more similarities than Faerber considered between the angsty drama of traditional superhero series (like his previous run on the DC nostalgia favorite The Titans) and the travails of modern-day celebs, so juxtaposing the two genres isn't so remarkable after all. This volume collects the first story arc of Faerber's series, with dishy behind-the-scenes introductions to each episode. But like the series, the trade paperback falls victim to a creator who tries to be a little too cute. Faerber's practice of switching artists and including an eight-page backup at the end of each 15-page main story creates too many moving parts, and he doesn't maintain the installments' order. The main stories appear in a five-chapter arc at the book's beginning, with the shorter stories gathered haphazardly at the end as a sort of appendix. Faerber's decision to use a different unknown artist on each shorter story is distracting, and the main story's art is uneven. Still, there are enough promising concepts displayed here to bear watching.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Yeah, there's some soap opera, but I really like this series
This series is about the dysfunctional superhero celebrity family of the Nobles. It begins when Liz, a normal woman, is going to marry into the family...then all kinds of drama begins. There are a lot of family and relationship issues going on in this series, and, yes, it may seem soap opera-ish to some. But ultimately it's a fun comic book that hasn't gained as much popularity as it deserves. I actually want to read the rest of the series after having read this trade paperback. It has drama, it has superheroes, it has comedy, it has action, it has romance...

Solid Story
I like to support creator owned projects so I picked up Noble Causes as well as Dynamo 5 recently. Noble Causes is like the E Entertainment version of superheroes. You have got a famous superhero family that is just as concerned by what the press is going to write about them as they do saving the world. This story is a soap opera with explosions, lasers, flying, magic and talking robots. It is a good opening story and the writing is interesting enough that I want to find out more. The art is solid but a little inconsistent. I do like that they reprinted the back up stories. They seem to be important since every time a reference is made to a past event, you can be sure there is a back up tale that explains what happened. I thought it was a fun and different take on super heroes.

Quality superhero family drama
With so many of the mainstream American books wallowing in nostalgia, independent books like Noble Causes are a reader's best bet for getting an actual story.

This volume quickly introduces the Noble family, a scientist father, a magic-using mother, three superpowered kids, plus their robot, a bastard son, and their demonic best friend.

Faerber quickly establishes there are serious problems behind their facade of happiness. Simple touches like the mother lighting a cigarette as soon as the cameras are off make them more real and flawed than most comic book heroes.

At the same time Faerber avoids the trap of 'superhero decadence'. The Nobles have their problems but they are not mass-murders masquerading as heroes. They are some very genuine characters, neither angels or demons but just as flawed or noble as ordinary humans.

If you're on the fence, you might want to check out the Noble Causes Archive which is a much fatter black and white reprint of the series.