Very good condition - minor scuffs to edges, corners and spine.  Sticker residue.

Eisner-nominated Nowhere Men writer Eric Stephenson teams up with red-hot artist Simon Gane for an all-new ongoing series! We all have advantages over one another, but what if you were capable of things most of us can only imagine? What would you do — and who would you be? A doctor? An athlete? A soldier? A hero? Everyone has to make a choice about how to use the abilities they're born with... but they're not like us.

Product details

Right at the start of the story, a young woman, Tabitha, is on the brink of committing suicide. She is standing on top of a tall building, but still hesitant to jump. Then mysteriously a rather sinister looking male appears and tries to talk her out of it, and at first I assumed, he's a police officer, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

The dark and brooding character turns out to be the Voice and he's the leader of a group of kids, teenagers and young adults, who all have special abilities. He tells Tabitha, "You are one of us." and wants her to be part of his group.
He's able to make her understand, that she isn't crazy, as she was let to believe her whole life so far. She is telepathic and that's why she hears all the different voices in her head. The group offers her for the first time in her life help to control and to use her ability.
There are group members who can see into the future, move so fast that all you can see is a blur, are very strong, etc. They all live together in two adjacent houses, where the interior offers actually quite a bit of luxury. There are paintings on every wall and they owe a most exquisite record collection.
Generally they keep themselves to themselves, there are no visitors and no connection to their past lives. In fact, they all get a new name, when they start living with the group. Tabitha will be Syd, a name chosen by the Voice and his psychic abilities are obivously strong enough to achieve that the group members are unable to remember their old name once they got the new one. And what's more, to make sure, there are really no connections left to the past, he "forces"/persuades his newbie members to kill their parents.
Something which didn't go down well for most of them in the long run and gives quite a few of them serious nightmares. Worse still, what looks on the outside like some heaven for young "superheroes", who have all suffered from abuse and misunderstanding during their childhood, as they were rather seen as crazy and disabled, than as gifted, well, it isn't the paradise it seems to be.
Their abilities are used to commit crimes and that's also how they amassed the wealth in which they live, by robbing and stealing from others. Their whole life is very controlled, restricted and isolated. To me it sounded very much like the life of a member of a cult.

From the moment Tabitha/Syd enters the group, things start to go wrong, underlying cracks of the group start to show, which will inevitably lead to severe consequences for all of them. But I must admit, towards the end I found some parts of the story weren't perfectly logical. Considering there is a group member, who can see into the future or others with telepathic abilities who can read minds, they should've seen certain things coming.

Generally, They're Not Like Us is a gripping and fascinating story, which raises quite a few moral questions. What makes us evil? When are evil actions rectified? (If at all.) Has the victim the right to take revenge or even kill the abuser? What if the abuser was a victim first, too?
At the same time, the whole group and its characters are interesting. I cared for quite a few of them, but my absolute favourite is the Voice. There is so much more to the character and I hope he will be in Volume 2 and in the one after that.
Simon Gane's artwork ties in perfectly with the story, he is able to breath life into the characters. Blurgirl's nightmare sequence is one of the highlights you don't want to miss.