In small-town Maine, standing out in a crowd can be dangerous. Alec hasn’t had an easy life. After his father died, his mother married Don to help make ends meet. What she didn’t know, her second husband would turn into an alcoholic leech. Worst yet, his drunken rages are directed at Alec, the son he never wanted. To make mattes worse, Alec has a secret even he doesn’t understand. Then there’s Roxanne, a friendship that fell apart as Alec struggled to cope with the death of his father. Despite the walls he’s erected to shield himself from the outside world, Roxanne is determined to be more than a sidekick in his life. So when the comic book aficionado discovers her friend has gifts beyond the average lanky-teenage boy, she is determined to teach him what it means to be a hero. I Am the First is a five-issue comic that deals with topics such as verbal abuse, bullying, mental health, grief, and suicide. But despite these heavy subjects, it speaks about hope, being true to yourself, and the rewards it can provide.