Lou Martin's a slacker geek, until he opens a mysterious package that arrives on his doorstep. Then he becomes a superpowered slacker geek, who despite his best efforts, keeps getting tangled up in various insanity. Bank robbers ditch their meticulous plans to instead crash into a convenience store while Lou's trying to get snacks. Weirdos in bad costumes are waiting on his lawn, expecting him to lead their team. Nazi Tyrannosaurs come marching through time portals. When he takes a babysitting job to try and earn a little cash, the kid is possessed.
As it turns out, Lou is the accidental subject of those two aliens' school science project. The aliens - especially the one scarfing all the mac n' cheese - aren't much smarter than Lou, so this has predictably not gone according to plan. But it does allow Arcudi a way to keep throwing Lou into situations he would never willingly get involved in, because the device that gives him powers also induces chaotic events in his vicinity.
Lou also gained a sort of super-intelligence, albeit one that usually only works when he's not thinking about it. (While trying to remember what he did over the weekend, he converts a VCR into a sort of blaster.) Which is another way for Arcudi to bring in additional chaos, since Lou may not even know what the thing he created is or does, once he realizes he's done it.
It all gives Mahnke the chance to draw a lot of strange stuff, as he continues to develop and expand the style he grew into on The Mask mini-series he and Arcudi worked on. He can capture the outsized physiology of characters like Lou, making them look superhuman while emphasizing how they don't behave superheroically. Lou's usually slouching or leaning on the nearest table or counter like it's too much effort to stand up. The people who wear spandex are not flattered by it, because their gaining powers isn't some great cosmic hand at work, but a couple of goobers from outer space trying not to lose their scholarships.
The coloration Feeny gives the aliens, combined with the segmented carapace Mahnke draws makes me think of caterpillars. Except these two aren't going to transform into something beautiful later. The doofus stays stupid, and the other one just gets meaner as his science project keeps backfiring on him.
Nobody really grows in the story. The last storyarc is one when a much older Lou (looking a bit like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, minus the mustache) has to go back in time to try and convince his younger self to actually, you know, actively try to stop something bad from happening. They eventually pull it off, but Lou isn't inspired to be a do-gooder or anything like that. He just wants to go back to watching TV and playing video games.
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