The adventures of teenage flying superhero, Go-Girl, her best friend Haseema Ross (girl detective) and her friends, family and school. Sweet, good-natured fun against computer games gone bad, slightly evil supervillain teams, art thieves and nasty prom queens.
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Fabulous, funny, sharply-written stories about four sibling superheroes (Alex, Julie, Jack and Katie) and their fantastic adventures. Includes frequent team-ups with adult groups like the Avengers, X-men or Fantastic Four. They’re out of continuity, so no familarity with larger canon is required.
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Hereville is good. It’s really good.
It’s the kind of good that makes me want to carry a copy with me at all times, just so that I can look at it every few minutes as a reminder that any world that produces books like this one is probably worth the benefit of the doubt.
Comics that can honestly be described as all-ages are few and far between. Knitting a narrative that appeals to adults and remains accessible to and appropriate for kids is no easy feat. Imbuing that story with layers of rich culture and tradition without overwhelming readers, and doing so while slyly subverting both form and trope take serious skill.
In many ways, Hereville is a classic coming-of-age story, the first adventure of a fledgling hero. It’s also a cultural narrative, steeped in the language and traditions of Orthodox Judaism. But at the same time, it’s full of contradictions and quirks that turn heroic convention topsy-turvy. It’s telling that the story begins with a friendly argument, as Mirka (the eleven-year-old heroine) and her stepmother Fruma discuss the theology of knitting.
Read Rachel’s full review at her blog InsideOut, or check out Hereville
Sometimes described as “Hellboy for children,” this book is the first in a series dealing with Courtney’s exploration of the fabulous and frightening world inhabited by her great uncle, Aloysius Crumrin. Dark themes are explored with glee, although little unpleasantness takes place on-panel. The book has two sequels which are similarly fabulous.
Courtney is a heroine who is in no danger of being described as ‘spunky.’ She’s stubborn, suspicious, and smart enough to realize when she’s done something stupid. The black and white art is beautiful, and depicts the jagged edges of Courtney’s secret world in a beautifully clear style. Children may miss Naifeh’s sharper wit, but adults will certainly enjoy it.
Jaime Reyes, a confused teenage boy, is accidentally fused to a confused alien artifact with an allergy to Green Lanterns and then unceremoniously dumped into the aftermath of last year’s Major Crossover Event[tm]. Will his life ever be the same? (Hint: no.)
Blue Beetle is what pure, concentrated awesome wants to be when it grows up! It is witty and fast paced and populated with 2D people with 3D personalities. The art is well suited to the story, and it doesn’t slip into gratuitousness when a female character steps on panel. It is FUN, and even though the book doesn’t flinch from the complicated and sometimes messy facts of life for a superhero in the DCU, it doesn’t lose its sense of humour.
If you’re not reading Blue Beetle, you are doing yourself irreparable self-harm. But you are lucky; there is a subscription for that!
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Young homeless orphan Billy Batson is swept up into the world of heroing when he bonds with Captain Marvel, a magic hero from the Rock of Eternity. But when Billy’s curiosity gets the best of him, he accidentally lets the forces of Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil into the world. Now it’s up to the pair to stop them from destroying the world. Jeff Smith’s re-imagining of the Shazam origin is a light, fun, and intelligent book, perfect for both young and old. Additionally, it requires no background in Shazam canon to pick up and read.
This atmospheric steampunk western is worth reading just for the art, but the writing doesn’t disappoint. Daisy Kutter is a retired train robber who hasn’t found anything to else to do. Her old partner is now the sheriff, which makes it awkward when she attempts one last job.
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Universally a favourite with test readers, Polly and the Pirates deals with prim and proper Polly’s unexpected and unwanted embroilment in the affairs of a charming and disreputable group of pirates. The art is clean and the layouts are intuitive to follow. Polly is sure to charm adults and children alike.
It’s Robinson Crusoe in space, about a teenager named Loo about to head off to the Science Academy with her twin sister P’heng, only something goes very wrong and on the way they end up crashing into an abandoned mining station. P’heng dies in the crash, and Loo is forced to survive on her own.
She is the sort of girl who, upon realizing her sister’s entire memory was downloaded into their ship’s data cores, decides to build a robot body by cannibalizing parts from the station and then downloading her sister into the body. She also ropes the station robots into helping her hold a picnic, because she’s alone on the station, she has nothing else to do with her time, and dammit, she had picnics all the time back home and she needs something to remind herself of home.
Loo is resourceful, upbeat, and headstrong. She’s just – you know – a really smart girl who lost her sister, might never see her family again, and has to survive as best she can, and she does exactly that.
–Toddperson
Please note that this is not “The Iron Giant”, though (another robot story I love). Characters drink too much, swear, have bad sex and do terrible things to each other. In many ways, it’s a more “real” world. More importantly, where Hogarth is a young boy who knows nothing much about the world, Jo is a 20-year-old woman who has been trained to see it in a certain way, and that gives her story much more resonance and depth than simply “a boy and his robot”.[...]
As a heroine Jo is a wonderful character – flawed, pursuing dreams that she feels she should rather than for herself and human. She does make some mistakes; but overall she finds strength within to (literally and figuratively) fight her demons and make a stand. Her growth and development is the core of the story and her character development is compelling and believable.
–Comikaze
