Like the heroes of Heroes, Ron Lithgow—the protagonist of Paul Chadwick's long-running series Concrete—has his superpowers thrust upon him unexpectedly well into life. An intelligent speechwriter with an overly cautious nature, Ron is kidnapped by aliens, who plant his brain inside a 1,000-pound stone body. From this outlandish premise springs a comics series of startling realism, as the thoughtful, introverted "Concrete" struggles to use his strength, power, and celebrity to effect some good in the world.

There's no skulking in alleys waiting to arrest pickpockets for Concrete; instead, Chadwick's hero wrestles with, and takes sides on, some of the hot-button issues of American life, including the death of the family farm, ecoterrorism, and—in the latest collection, 2006's The Human Dilemma—population control.