Although it is ranked in the top of LINE's Wednesday Webtoons, it was not well received by me at first due to its title. I didn't really know what kind of genre the title of 'Sidekick' was referring to... But as I was skimming through the completed titles, the first episode of the webtoon stood out to me. Since the number of published episodes were quite a few, I started reading the webtoon thinking that I should give it a try at least. However, as it was more interesting than I expected, I ended up binge reading it. 

  The protagonist Dream Girl (Lamia) is a sidekick for the superhero Dark Slug. (A 'sidekick' which also is the title of the webtoon means the position of apprentice for superheroes).

Dream Girl didn't hesitate to become Dark Slug's sidekick as she got inspired by him when he saved her in her childhood. But as she actually becomes his sidekick, she soon finds him to be a wine addict and a vicious employer who leaves everything to his sidekick to make her overwork...

Along with Dark Slug (but almost alone in most of the cases), Dream Girl carries out many tasks to stop people who use their superpowers against the world for evil purposes (so called villains) or handle other accidents. She dreams of becoming a proper hero once she is recognized by the Dark Slug and silently(?) executes such demanding duties 

  Meanwhile, she gets caught up in an incident involving the existence of 'Prana', which was a secret hidden by the committee that manages heroes. 'Prana' is a set of three hidden artifacts that hold the mystery of superpowers. The villain Metheos conspires to collect all three Pranas, and his conspiracy included Dark Slug and Black Hound (Theo) who was Dark Slug's another sidekick except Dream Girl.

  They face miserable results in the first season. Followed by in the second season, Dream Girl (Lamia) inherits the power of Dark Slug, and now acts a hero called Nightmare.

I believe the most important part of the hero genre is to seamlessly integrate the heroes' backgrounds, current situations and individual personalities for them to possess justifications. The sorrows of being a hero, the lives they have to go through by having a superpower, the gap between heroes and other ordinary people, the blames toward heroes, their sense of duty to protect the world, and their human fears and weaknesses... When these elements are properly harmonized to be not excessive, the readers seem to follow and sympathize with the heroes.

Though the webtoon does not depict or address such aspects in a very detailed and elaborate manner, it effectively utilizes the position of sidekicks - that lacks 2% to fully become heroes and yet, neither can be classified as an ordinary person - to arouse such sympathies of the readers.

They work like a hero, but as they rely upon the hero's evaluation, they have to keep their hero in their minds all the time. Even if they have solved most of the problem, they have to leave the last shot for their hero reluctantly. Living such lives where they have to endure getting humiliated under the belief that they too will be someday become heroes is not much different from the readers' daily lives.

(Of course, in the latter part of the webtoon, Dream Girl (Lamia) finds out that all the difficulties which she had to experience had a reason. However, if one doesn't look at the results, the steps that she had to go through are awfully similar to our everyday lives) Therefore, seeing sidekicks who are very much like ourselves working out various tasks provide the indirect experience to the readers where they feel as if they have actually become superheroes themselves, and thereby, the readers form their immersions and sympathies in the webtoon along the process.

  So I'm looking forward to reading how the second season of Sidekick will get unraveled. Now that the protagonist Nightmare has become an official hero, no longer being an apprentice, and as she has suffered tremendously during the procedure, I wonder how the author would portray her emotions in a smooth and thoughtful manner to earn the reader's sympathy.

Since the author has so far established the background of the story in the first season and introduced new characters in the early stages of the second season, it seems that real story will now get unfolded in it's full scale. Let's hope that the webtoon keeps get supported by the readers and create yet another attractive hero who secures Earth.