Don’t let the silly, magazine style cover with the neat-o Jim Lee drawing of Dead Kid Fred fool you; this is a long and serious comic. Dead Kid Fred is a kid who received some unknown but apparently serious powers in return for him becoming a stinking Zombie. It’s apparent however that he seriously regrets it as his new situation has isolated him. He begins to hate himself, and his parents send him away to a school for kids with super hero potential. The Intimates is about the goings on at that school.

The story in Issue #5 by Joe Casey is both very sad and very poignant. It captures the kind of angst and self-defeat that most people experience at one point or another of their adolescence, only it’s through the eyes of Dead Kid Fred, a guy who really has a reason to feel the way he does. It gives the thoughts the seriousness and gravity that they deserve, instead of brushing them away as youthful nonsense like they too often are. Though it has the interest of the super hero dynamic, this is more of a high school drama, but don’t let those words scare you because it is neither sappy nor over the top. Jim Lee (penciler) as always, delivers consistent and detailed artwork as well as some very interesting characters.

In Issue #5, Dead Kid Fred joins the super school, but has already given up on himself. Though the other students are not mean to him (except for that be-hatch Destra), Fred has cut himself off and is actually a bit mean himself. Punchy, the mega, punching puppet-wielding kid, even attempts to reach out to Fred, but he is met with indifference. Punchy is also reading the online diary of a seriously depressed person who seems to be both extremely abnormal and suicidal. Eventually Punchy discovers that the writer is in fact Dead Kid Fred, and the Marionette Masher busts in just in time to stop Fred from burning himself alive. (Fred read on the Internet that burning is a good way to kill the undead).

To be honest, I thought that this comic was going to be a lame-o comedy. It actually was pretty serious and well done. Coupled with the often-hilarious running facts at the bottom of the page, the comic is a great mix of humor and drama. Check it out and relive a high school only with super powers, and you don’t have to get wedgies.