With a cameo from Batman himself, this origin story presents an entertaining new team of supers.
Setting their debut superhero graphic-novel series for kids in the suburbs of East Gotham, Quinn, Lunetta, and Gil introduce readers to an unlikely DC Comics duo.
Sloane MacBrute and Piper Pájaro are both 13 but are otherwise very different from each other. Piper is Latinx, the brown-skinned daughter of scientists working in Antarctica; she lives with Abuela and Uncle John, a police officer. She also has superstrength and can lift a small car. Sloane is white and happens to be the granddaughter of the Bear, the notorious goon; she is also a robotics genius. When her recently laid-off mother’s health declines, Bear dispatches Sloane, as her supervillain alter ego, Gray, to steal a device from a research facility. Piper, who moonlights as the superhero Hummingbird, learns about a threat to the device her parents created, so she shows up to protect it. The late-night mission goes awry, and the device somehow causes both girls to switch bodies, forcing them to work together to switch them back and thwart the Bear. Co-authors Lunetta and Quinn’s quick dialogue, narration, and pacing are successful, and from Abuela, readers hear Spanish peppered throughout the story. Gil’s illustrations are dynamic, filling spreads with noir-toned purple and dark-blue hues. Panels cut from aerial views and zoom into the fast-paced action, building momentum.
With a cameo from Batman himself, this origin story presents an entertaining new team of supers. (Graphic adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9325-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Classic action-packed, monster-fighting fun
It’s been 42 days since the Monster Apocalypse began, and 13-year-old Jack Sullivan, a self-proclaimed “zombie-fighting, monster-slaying tornado of cool” is on a quest to find and rescue his not-so-secret crush, June Del Toro, whether she needs it, wants it, or not.
Jack cobbles together an unlikely but endearing crew, including his scientist best friend, Quint Baker; Dirk Savage, Parker Middle School’s biggest bully; and a pet monster named Rover, to help him save the damsel in distress and complete the “ULTIMATE Feat of Apocalyptic Success.” Middle-grade readers, particularly boys, will find Jack’s pitch-perfect mix of humor, bravado, and self-professed geekiness impossible to resist. His sidekicks are equally entertaining, and it doesn’t hurt that there are also plenty of oozing, drooling, sharp-toothed monsters and zombies and a host of gizmos and gadgets to hook readers and keep them cheering with every turn of the page. Holgate’s illustrations play an integral role in the novel’s success. They not only bring Brallier’s characters to life, but also add depth and detail to the story, making plain just exactly how big Rover is and giving the lie to Jack’s “killer driving.” The marriage of text and illustration serves as a perfect example of what an illustrated novel can and should be.
Classic action-packed, monster-fighting fun (. (Graphic/horror hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-670-01661-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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