My review of vol. 1 of 20th Century Boys is now up on Manga Life. Here’s an excerpt:

20th Century Boys is a sprawling, ambitious story set over several decades in the lives of a group of childhood friends. When they were boys, Kenji and his gang had big imaginations and bigger dreams, but as adults they’ve settled into quiet and unexceptional lives. Instead of growing up to be astronauts and rock musicians, they’ve become store owners, salarymen, and high school teachers. Kenji himself just seems to be scraping by, as he struggles to run his family’s convenience store while raising his sister’s kid. But a mysterious cult leader known only as Friend is gathering followers in Tokyo, and somehow his cult has something to do with Kenji and his friends’ childhood games.