Drugs, drink drive comic hero in 'Buzzkill'

For some heroes, power comes from the stars or a mutation or a secret experiment gone awry. The protagonist of Dark Horse Comics' "Buzzkill" just needs bottles of beer or lots of pills.

The comic by writers Donny Cates and Mark Reznicek focuses on protagonist Ruben, whose blackout-infused drinking leaves him with blood on his hands and a drive to stay sober.

But sobriety is just what his enemies want, so Ruben must drink enough to keep his super strength at full force and his enemies at bay.

Cates called the four-part mini-series out Wednesday and illustrated by artist Geoff Shaw and colored by Lauren Affe a sobering look at the relationship between power and addiction and "the very real consequences of both."

"I don't consider the book that I'm writing to be about a superhero who is an alcoholic but an alcoholic who is a superhero who has done a lot of horrific things," Cates said.

The idea, Cates said, came from a night of drinking with Reznicek.

Cates said "Buzzkill" is a serious meditation about fighting the evils of addiction.

"The hero never thinks that what they're doing is bad. Everything that they're doing, they think they're doing for the right reasons," he said, even when it's not necessarily the case.

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Moore reported from Philadelphia. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap