Avengers: Acts Of Vengeance - various writers

Avengers: Acts of Vengeance - various

A mysterious figure enlists together some very unlikely villainous bedfellows — Red Skull, Magneto, Kingpin, Dr. Doom, Wizard, and Mandarin — while casting himself, the real mastermind, as each one's lackey, letting each one believe he is the brains behind it all.  Brushing aside how this would possibly work ("Hey, why are you calling my lackey 'Lackey'?  That's my lackey!"), this collection very helpfully put Loki on the back cover, blowing any chance, however small, of the mystery puppeteer's identity.  I didn't think much of the premise that somehow switching opponents with someone would ensure victory, but anyway.  As with all long story arcs that involve multiple titles, the quality varies, but there's a lot of great superhero combat, and some soap opera-like dramatics of the time, plus some terrific Byrne artwork.  [3.5]

Sleeper - Ed Brubaker

Sleeper - Ed Brubaker

1. Book One - This 420-page volume contains the original miniseries that introduced Holden Carver, the deep undercover sleeper agent in Tao's criminal network, plus issues #1-12 of Sleeper proper.  The original miniseries, Point Blank, is told from Grifter's point of view, and Carver is only seen sporadically.  I had never read that before; it fills in one of the missing pieces of the puzzle, namely who shot John Lynch and put his in a coma, but it also showcases Brubaker's super-noir to great effect.  When the real series starts, it gets less street level and more super-powered, which only further shows Brubaker's skill at makes claustrophobic, suspenseful pressure cookers for even invulnerable characters.  Is Carver keeping one steps ahead of the crafty Tao, or does Tao know all about Carver and is he playing a long game?  At the end of this volume, Lynch wakes up — but is it too late for Carver, whose only home remaining is with Tao?  [5]
   

Nova - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Nova - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

1. The Complete Collection Vol. 1 - This thick book contains Annihilation: Nova, Nova (2007) #1-15, the first annual and some origin material.  Beginning from the destruction of Xandar during the Annihilation War, the story follows Richard Rider as he is infused with Worldmind, a sort of AI comprised of all the knowledge of Xandar, and boosted with the power of the entire (now-deceased) Nova Corps.  Often at odds with Worldmind, who is more practical, Rider takes risks to save everyone he can.  He meets a talking dog with vast psionic powers in Knowhere (a laboratory located in the head of a celestial at the end of space), tries to save the people on a planet Galactus is destroying, butts heads with Iron Man over the registration act, and spars with Gamora as she tries to have him assimilated by the Phalanx, a sort of Borg-like technological virus.  It's cosmic super-heroics of the first order, very well written and paced.  I love how the authors create vast new worlds while also putting Nova through his paces with established Marvel lore like the Surfer and the Kree.  [4]
2. The Complete Collection Vol. 2 - This is Nova (2007) #16-36.  Here, Rider sets up base on Earth, but is taken aback by Worldmind's unilateral restoration of the Nova Corps, and when Ego the Living Planet is brought into the equation, he realizes things make not be as above-board as Worldmind says they are.  Later, the reformed Corps responds to distress signals in space, and tries to restore order to some of the post-Annihilation skirmishes, facing Blastaar, the Imperial Guard, and other heavy hitters.  Finally, in trying to track down Darkhawk, Nova gets caught up in a contest of heroes brought about by cosmic conqueror Sphinx, who is trying to defeat... his angrier younger self.  Again, just a superbly-written cosmic soap opera, with suspense, action, great character differentiation, and fully fleshed-out arguments for antagonists and protagonists alike. [4]
   

Avengers Epic Collection - various writers

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17. Judgment Day - Roger Stern etc.  Stinging from the assault on their HQ by the Masters of Evil, the Avengers are not in the best shape mentally.  Wasp wants to step down as leader, and some of the new recruits, like Dr. Druid, aren't exactly fitting in.  Then, they are attacked by the Greek gods, who have been tricked into thinking Hercules' wounds are the result of the Avengers themselves.  After they talk their way past Zeus, it's into an another adventure, battling for the X-Men and the Soviet Super-Soldiers to get custody of Magneto.  Also, the Grandmaster puts the Avengers in battle with the Legion of the Dead for all the stakes.  Finally, Dr. Doom conquers the entire world by using the Purple Man's powers, but he finds it isn't all it's cracked up to be.  I enjoy Stern's soap opera super-heroics; this is a good read.  Library.  [3.5]
    

Astro City - Kurt Busiek

Astro City - Kurt Busiek

This isn't "superheroes in the real world," but "the human side of superheroes."  In the real world, these creations would be locked up and done experiments on.  No, this is about humanity. These books explore how it might feel to be a living cartoon, a villain's daughter, a washed-up hero, a hero and a father-to-be.  These volumes are sweet and a sly homage to decades of comic book lore and it may be silly and it may be trite but dammit, sometimes they even make me tear up.  I'm just a sap for bathos and romance.

1.  Life In the Big City - A man moves to Astro City and learns what it means to live with a city of constant superhero tropes.  [5]
   
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12. Lovers' Quarrel - an aging Crackerjack and Quarrel, on and off lovers and partners, argue about what to do with their lives and whether to quit as they get slower.  Crackerjack is insistent on using the retired Black Rapier's anti-aging serum, with bad results.  [4.5]
13. Honor Guard - the second Hummingbird, daughter of the first, finds out her powers come with a curse; a living nightmare is wakened; Starfighter wonders whether it's time to settle down.  All excellent stories; the chibi-anime-videogame one was the weakest.  [4]
14. Reflections - we see the First Family from the point of view of the Bee Empire, but one youngling finds out the official story may not be true; Steeljack works a case of missing tech; and Samaritan is troubled by nightmares.  [4.5]
15. Ordinary Heroes - a sea-based villain plots a return from the isolated island he's stranded on; two generations of Jack-in-the-Box work on uncovering the original's past; and we return to the story of Maria, who works on the Hill, where the magic is.  [4]
16. Broken Melody - we learn some pre-war Astro City history.  A super-musical force, seen earlier as the Bouncing Beatnik, is born as Mister Cakewalk, of ragtime days, and later Baby Jazz, of the flapper era.  Also the Astro-Naut, a pilot who becomes a space hero and inspires the town's name (this story really lays on the weepy melodrama thick).  And the surprisingly original origin of the Gentleman.  But the heart of this one is the Broken Man, the fourth-wall breaking purple guy who keeps trying to explain his role to us (it gets very Grant Morrison).  I could read Astro City lore forever, I think. [4]
    

MetroBook

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3. Vol. 3 - This volume combines all four Dark Ages series plus the two-issue Silver Agent story. It's a grand sweeping epic covering (and just briefly touching on) a lot of Astro City lore, but throughout it's the story of two brothers.  One, Royal, is a small-time criminal who works for various underworld bosses.  Charles is a cop who refuses to join his corrupt fellow officers, and later becomes an EAGLE trooper.  What binds them together is their shared trauma — in 1959, their parents were murdered by a Pyramid goon, and the Silver Agent never stopped to help them.  Thus, they both burn with the desire for vengeance and an apathetic attitude toward the costumes.  Working together undercover, they track the killer from place to place as he rises in the ranks of his criminal organization.  Meanwhile, the city is rocked by a series of grim events in which the costumes trend toward excessive force, and the Silver Agent is found guilty in an open-and-shut case of murder, and sentenced to death.  It's a great story, and an interesting look at what to me represents the Marvel stories of the 1970s and '80s.  Astro City is often more DC and Marvel, and this story, set in the 1970s, shows what the human side of supers might be like if they were grim and gritty and the normal people were as fearful and reactionary as in an X-Men comic.  Overall, it's an enjoyable story, although at times the breakneck race through superhuman events in a panel or page left me less engaged.  [4]
   

Buz Sawyer - Roy Crane

Buz Sawyer - Roy Crane

1. x
2. Sultry's Tiger - In this volume, which starts 10/5/45, WWII has just ended.  There is a two-strip moment of suspense when we fear Buz's plane home has gone down, but the family is disabused of this notion immediately, and we are off to the drama of exotic locales and femmes fatales.  Pilots are a dime a dozen, but Buz's old pal Chili gets him a job as a jack-of-all-trades pilot adventurer, first with International Airways and then with Frontier Oil.  A wily ex-guerilla maharani he knew in the Pacific tries to win his heart, but is jealous of his old flame Tot, which leads to trouble for them both.  Buz is sent to Greenland to stop a mad German from shooting at planes.  He is kidnapped, along with a plastic surgeon, and taken to Africa.  He goes to south America to rescue a vanished pilot and comes upon some unsavory characters who control the whole area through fear.  It's all planes and bare knuckles and curvaceous beauties, pulp adventure in glorious 1940s black and white.  The story telling is quite brisk, with very little of the dragging out of side plots, lingering on one scene, or repetition of previous material, so reads extremely well in this format.  [4.5]
3. Typhoons and Honeymoons - This volume starts 7/24/47.  Buz is still working for Frontier Oil as an adventurer-of-all-quests.  The first story is mostly light humor, in which he meets up with his friend Thirsty, who pulls a bait and switch on Buz and leaves him with his fiancee, whom Thirsty is ashamed to face.  But then a typhoon blows in Thirsty must step up.  Next a long arc starts in which Buz plays cat and mouse with what will become a long-term foe: Harry Sparrow, a cruel but hapless blend of Lex Luthor and the Deacon from Pogo, who is running guns.  He's a terrific character, a rich crime lord with a delicate stomach who detests violence.  His dumb muscle Gool is similarly a delight.  But it's not all fun and games; Buz is marooned on an island, left on a burning ship, even drugged and reduced to an amnesiac hobo in the care of a frightful old bag lady.  The last third details an excursion to drill oil in Africa.  It's all masterfully drawn and plotted.  Easily some of the best adventure strips in the medium, I'd say.  [5]
   

Justice League Dark - James Tynion IV

Justice League Dark - James Tynion IV

1. x
2. Lords Of Order - Some truly nasty monsters call the Otherkind have come to our world to eat magic.  The Lords of Order, led by Nabu, have decided that magic is too dangerous are willing to destroy entire worlds to get rid of it (in order to save to multiverse).  Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Detective Chimp, Swamp Thing, and a more benevolent Man-Bat must try to stop them and save magic, while also avoiding being destroyed by the Otherkind.  This leads them to turns to help in questionable directions, such as Circe and Mordru.  This is brilliantly written supernatural horror, beautifully (and disturbingly) illustrated.  The short Swamp Thing story in which he is replaced by a new guardian of the green, the King of Petals, is similarly grim.  [4.5]
3. The Witching War - After defeating the Lord of Order, JLD faces off against the group that consolidated in the vacuum.  Led by an overpowered Circe, Klarion, Grundy, the new Fluoronic Man, and Papa Midnite wish to rule everything, and the key is the gem that has trapped Eclipso.  More absolutely top-notch occult drama from Tynion, whom I've never read before but is a great writer.  [4.5]
   

Reckless - Ed Brubaker

Reckless - Ed Brubaker

1. Reckless
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5. Follow Me Down - Eric is asked by a neighbor to track down his son's wife Rachel, who has gone missing.  It turns out that she had been contacted by her childhood abuser and is now on a mission of revenge.  Seeing a kindred spirit, Eric decides to help her get away with it, and then offer active assistance.  As always, pitch-perfect crime noir from Brubaker, from the detailed procedures of pounding the pavement to the explosive, brief moments of action.  This is a relatively straight revenge story, without any surprising twists, but enthralling from start to finish.  [5]
    

Barbalien: The Red Planet - Tate Brombal

Barbalien: The Red Planet - Tate Brombal

From the pages of Black Hammer.  Warlord of Mars turned superhero, and tissue-paper-veiled Martian Manhunter clone, Mark Markz has found his place on Earth as both a decorated police officer and as Barbalien. But in 1985, the midst of the AIDS crisis, hatred from all sides makes balancing these identities seem impossible.  As a young white man, he explores the gay night scene with some Hispanic gay activists.  But even as he explores this side of his already fractured identity, he comes into conflict with his police coworkers.  He tries to make peace between the activists and the cops, pleasing no one.  Meanwhile, a murderous bounty hunter from Mars comes to track him down.  This is a superb story, taking Lemire's character and exploring a whole new facet of his personality, while also grounding him for the first time in the real world of AIDS awareness and intolerance.  Brombal uses the story's parallel structure deftly to show that Earth, too, is the red planet.  [4.5]

Black Hammer: Visions - various

Black Hammer: Visions - various

1. Volume 1
   
2. Volume 2 - This collections contains four stories of varying quality: a tale of the cat and mouse game between Skulldigger and a sexy cat burglar (a clear Catwoman and Black Cat stand-in), which begins in the typical playful matter but turns serious; Ms. Moonbeam, a character in limbo, taking matter sin her own hands to make it big; a slyly funny tale of Cthu-Lou, an out of work plumber who is the very unwilling avatar of the great dead god; and maybe the best entry, a story of the Horseless Rider, written by the great Scott Snyder.  [3.5]
   

Miracleman - Alan Moore

Miracleman - Alan Moore (credited as The Original Writer)

1. X
2. The Red King Syndrome - In his human form as Moran, MM is going to be a father.  But when Dr. Gargunza, who created Miracleman, kidnaps his pregnant wife for his own nefarious reasons, Moran enlists the help of Cream and together they travel to South Africa to rescue her.  Told with interspersed flashbacks of how Gargunza discovered a crashed alien ship and came to have the idea for Miracleman and his two sidekicks, the story shows both a human side to Moran (his rage, fear, and helplessness in the face of his missing wife) and a "realistic" view of what an invincible superhuman could do to his enemies if he wished.  [4.5]
   

Batman: Three Jokers - Geoff Johns

Batman: Three Jokers - Geoff Johns

Three identical Jokers commit murders at the same time on camera or in front of witnesses, prompting Batman to work with Red Hood (Jason Todd) and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) to try to find out where these extra Jokers came from and which one is the "real" Joker.  The art recalls Brian Bolland's work on "The Killing Joke," quite deliberately, I'm sure, while the story itself tries to reconcile the loose ends and recriminations of both that story and "A Death in the Family."  It's Johns writing in the vein of Alan Moore, and a terrific story, but in the end not as meaningful as Moore's best works.  I will say I quite enjoyed the final pages, an ending which may not be taken as canon by subsequent authors, but to me fits very neatly.  [4]

Knights of the Lunch Table - Frank Cammuso

Knights of the Lunch Table - Frank Cammuso

1. The Dodgeball Chronicles - Artie King, new to Camelot Middle School, makes friends with his fellow nerds while trying to avoid the evil Principal Dagger and the Horde, a group of dodgeball-playing bullies.  His friend Percy suggests a game of dodgeball in lieu of being pummeled, but the three friends have no chance.  They go on a few quests to seek help, but nothing seems to work, and soon even their friendly advisor, Mr. Merlyn, puts his job security on the game's outcome.  As is clear, this is a very thinly-veiled pastiche of the Camelot stories.  It's funny and silly, and kids probably will like it.  It was too childish even for me, though.  [3]
   

Captain Marvel - Kelly Thompson

Captain Marvel [2019] - Kelly Thompson

1. Re-Entry - CM is back from her sabbatical in space, and is immediately talked by Tony Stark into taking Hazmat under her wing.  Her relationship with Rhodey is doing well and everything seems good, but she is then attacked by Makhizmo, the Nuclear Man, who wants her for his super-bride.  He's put a bubble around Roosevelt Island that only women can pass through.  She enters and finds some of her friends and allies, albeit depowered.  Together they try to stop the Nuclear Man from carrying out his extremely creepy plan, while also dealing with the suspicious sole male on the island who claims to be an ally.  It's a fun, fast-paced story with some humor, though overall a bit wordy.  Putting together a multiple-ranched army out of mostly civilians without the Big Bad noticing is a little hard to swallow, too, but I guess that's comics.  [3.5]
2. x
3. The Last Avenger - CM is captured by Vox Supreme and is forced to kill the Avengers and bring their bodies to him.  But she has a plan involving Singularity, a friendly pocket universe, and with their help she plans to double-cross Vox.  Also there's a story in which CM, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel, and a couple of others are trapped in an escape room by an unexpectedly powerful loser.  The main story is highly enjoyable; it's nice when the writer takes care to make their character's win over other heroes plausible.
   

Captain Marvel - Ruth Fletcher Gage & Christos Gage

Captain Marvel [2016] - Ruth Fletcher Gage & Christos Gage

1. x
2. Civil War II - CM is up in space with Alpha Flight.  She's using the visions of a young helpful precog to arrive at crimes just as they start, saving many lives.  She has to answer to a board of governors that includes Gyrich and Black Panther, all of whom have opinions about the use of the precog.  Iron Man disagrees with CM on how proactively to use the precog's visions.  Both the front and back cover of this collection imply that CM is going to fight Iron Man, but that doesn't happen.  Iron Man isn't present on any page, nor do his words appear.  Clearly someone in the sales department didn't think much of the board room drama.  But that's unfair, because there's a traitor trying to ruin CM's reputation and she needs to find them fast.  Gage's ability to craft a mystery even in super-hero space is admirable, and this part is good.  But I just couldn't bother to care about the pages and pages of drama about the "dead" James Rhodes or Banner.  Gage could do great things with the ethics of killing and the prison consequences, but of course none of that has any weight for a second in Marvel.  [3] 
   

Doodleville - Chad Sell

Doodleville - Chad Sell

I thought Sell's Cardboard Kingdom was an interesting and original take on how divergent and questioning kids can express themselves through art and creativity.  However, I didn't click with this book. The protagonist, Drew (ha ha! Drew!) created "doodles" — drawings of little creatures that she names and designs the titular city for.  From their inception, they are conscious and animate, moving across walls and interacting with other drawings, which are similarly alive.  No one, not even the adults in the story, seems to remark on this or think it is odd, so the drawings aren't just a metaphor for her feelings, even though the monster, Leviathan, she creates is clearly meant to represent her anxiety.  I found Drew's hysterical grief at Leviathan's rampages to be weirdly out of place, and her art club friends' condemnation and disapproval likewise odd.  I just never engaged with it, but then I'm not the target audience.  Creative children with anxiety would probably differ.  [2.5]

Stepping Stones - Lucy Knisley

Stepping Stones - Lucy Knisley

A fictionalized autobiography about Jen, a girl whose divorced mother moves from the city to a farm, where Jen must do chores and deal with her annoying stepfather.  Taking care of the chickens is all right, and Jen likes helping her mom, but a deep dyscalculia means handling cash at the stand gives her anxiety.  When Walter's two daughters start spending the weekend at the farm, Jen finds one to be whiny and the other a snobby perfectionist who takes over everything she touches.  This is a bittersweet story with all too real characters (unfortunately, I saw a lot of myself in Walter), but a nice ending about making the best of things.  I enjoyed it a lot.  [4]

Fibbed - Elizabeth Agyemang

Fibbed - Elizabeth Agyemang

Nana, an American girl, is in trouble at home and school because she saw a troupe of squirrels steal her teacher's toupee and no one believes her?  Yeah, that sounds pretty dumb, and it sets the tone for the rest.  Nana is sent to stay for the summer with her family and Nigeria, where she is similarly branded a liar, even though her grandmother is well versed in magical story telling.  Eventually the kids discover that white people are destroying the village by sucking out all the magic, and they are enlisted by Ananse to help.  It's all a bit disjointed, with forced, stilted resolutions (summed up as, paraphrased, I see now that even though they called me a liar, I know they were trying to help me [??]), and the worst, flattest, most incompetent art this side of an elementary school.  [1.5]

Sunny Side Up - Jennifer & Matthew Holm

Sunny Side Up - Jennifer & Matthew Holm

1. Sunny Side Up - Sunny Lewin is sent to Florida to stay the summer with her grandfather, shattering her plans for a holiday with her best friend.  Everyone in the retirement community is old, her grandfather smokes, and there's little to do; Disney is not in the picture, but trips to the post office are.  Soon, though, she meets another kid and they bond over comic books and finding lost cats.  Gradually, the reason why Sunny was sent to Florida emerges; her older brother has a substance abuse problem.  Sunny keeps her feelings bottled up until one day she can't anymore.  This is a very sweet, poignant story, based on the authors' real life experiences.  It's light and a very quick read; there aren't any explicit morals or lessons, just a grandfather who turns out to have some of the right answers.  A very skilled handling of a sensitive topic.  [4]

4. Sunny Makes a Splash - I read this book second.  Whoops!  Another sweet Sunny story (also autobiographical) in which not much happens and no big lessons are learned.  Sunny gets a summer job working the snack stand at a pool.  Her grandfather visits as well.  Sunny  gets a small vicarious taste of romance through the older lifeguards at the pool, while making tentative friends with a nice boy who works at the stand as well, even going on a sort of double date.  Oh, and the running theme is that she's scared of the high dive.  Sunny is such an innocent, hard-working, responsible girl that it's baffling why throughout the book the mother is portrayed as such an awful, paranoid harridan, freaking out at both Sunny's exceedingly mild first steps toward teenhood and independence and grandfather's own romantic evenings.  [4]

One Year at Ellsmere - Faith Erin Hicks

One Year at Ellsmere - Faith Erin Hicks

Juniper, a middle class, nerdy girl, begins her school year at Ellsmere, as the prestigious private school's first and only scholarship student.  She makes friends with Cassie, her roommate, a shy girl whose parents are cold and distant.  They both make enemies of Emily, the typical rich girl insecure snob.  When Emily orchestrates a nasty plan to get Juniper expelled, Cassie tries to help make things right.  It's a great story, both funny and dramatic.  It captures the nastiness of teenage school bullying but leavens it with enough cool smart loner type protagonist banter, and just a smidgen of magic, that it's not depressing.  I'd eagerly pick up a sequel.  [4.5]

When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Omar (whose real-life story this is) and his developmentally delayed brother Hassan live in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya, with thousands of other Somali refugees.  His days are filled with playing soccer with a ball of waded-up plastic bags, avoiding trouble from the kids from neighboring blocks, and taking care of Hassan.  When a community leader suggests school, Omar is hesitant, but finds that his brain thirsts for knowledge.  Education brings with it the one-in-a-million miracle chance that he might be selected for resettlement in America or another country, so he continues his education.  The story covers several years, as Omar goes through desperate hopes to bitter disappointment to acceptance.  His friends who are girls have it worse, as many Somalis feel education is wasted on girls, and one of them is married off and pregnant very young, dashing her hopes of emigrating and becoming a doctor.  This is a poignant and deeply resonant story of survival, loss, and hope.  Jameison, of Roller Girl fame, does a superb job of conveying Omar's struggles with disappointment and guilt.  It's extraordinarily well executed, just a perfect graphic novel that should be required reading in schools and universities.  [5]

Jukebox - Nidhi Chanani

Jukebox - Nidhi Chanani

Shaheen, a teen girl familiar with the kind of knowledge and appreciation of classic music (think Bessie Coleman, Marvin Gaye) that exists only in the young people of fiction, has a failing out with her father, who goes missing.  She and her cousin Tannaz look for him at the hip record shop, where they discover a magical jukebox that sends people back in time.  Specifically, to the release day of whatever record is playing.  It's an interesting idea, but one that didn't click for me.  I found the art sketchy and unappealing, but that's just my taste.  The real problem here is in the writing.  Everyone acts and talks in a bizarre, alien way.  Shahi's mother is unconcerned with her husband's disappearance; the record store owner is weirdly angry about his records despite owning a literal time machine; both girls take the time machine in stride; the people in the historical eras act stilted and clichéd.  On top of all that, outside of the famous James Brown concert after MLK's assassination, there is little interesting historical information or anecdotes.  I found all of these authorial choices off-putting.  [2.5]

Pests and Pets - Andy Warner

Pests and Pets - Andy Warner

An anecdotal history of the animals associated with humans, organized into three broad categories: Creatures We Find Cute, Creatures We Find Useful, and Creatures That Find Us Useful (the pests).  The emphasis is on the history of domestication of each animal, if applicable, but there are many fascinating bits of trivia along the way, from how a memoir about a baby raccoon led to Japan's raccoon population to how a hamster breeding pyramid scheme was sold to kids out of comic books.  The tone is airy but erudite, with some clever running jokes and advanced vocabulary.  Absolutely delightful and indispensable for anyone who's interested in animals.  [5]

Ham Helsing - Rich Moyer

Ham Helsing - Rich Moyer

1. Vampire Hunter - Ham, a hapless pig who comes from a long line of rather clueless, impetuous adventurers who died early, moves to Mud Valley to fight vampires.  After the town's richest man is found dead, he sets ff to rid the village of evil, accompanied by a couple of greedy but useless rats and a not very scary werewolf who thinks he's at summer camp.  But not all is as it seems, for there is more than one monster and more than one secret lair in the woods.  This is a very funny parody of the monster trope as well as a terrific lesson for kids on judging people on what they do rathr than what they are.  Hilarious and well crafted.  [5]
   

Cub - Cynthia L. Copeland

Cub - Cynthia L. Copeland

In 1972, fifth-grader Cindy, a somewhat nerdy and intelligent girl, navigates the scary waters of mean girls and outcasts.  Meanwhile, on the advice of a favorite teacher, Cindy starts to work with a local reporter, covering stories such as school board meetings or Earth Day celebrations.  When one of the cool (and cruel) girls starts moving in on her BFF and her crush, Cindy feels lost, but takes refuge in new and old friends as well as her burgeoning writing and photography.  Highly autobiographical, this is both a terrific time capsule of the early '70s and a (somewhat toothless) look at the vicissitudes of middle school girl drama.  [4]

Cardboard Kingdom - Chad Sell

Cardboard Kingdom - Chad Sell (with various authors)

In a small suburban neighborhood, a boy uses cardboard to play the evil Sorceress, while in the short vignettes that follow, family and friends become other characters that suit them, if sometimes after a struggle.  A possibly neurodivergent, on-the-spectrum boy dresses as a robot.  A detail-oriented girl grounded in reality becomes a seller of magic potions.  A bully becomes a rampaging monster, gradually accepted through play.  A girl told to act demure and quiet lives out her true self as a roaring beast.  A questioning boy decides he's not a princess to be rescued nor a monster, but a dashing rogue.  All of this is told through pictures when possible (though there's a good amount of dialogue).  It's a sweet, welcoming story, told with delicacy and understanding.  Absolutely perfect for questioning kids.  [4]

The Okay Witch - Emma Steinkellner

The Okay Witch - Emma Steinkellner

Thirteen-year-old Moth Hush loves magic and witches.  One Halloween, she discovers not only that she has witch powers, but her family is at the center of some centuries-old witch drama in her Massachusetts hometown.  Her mother wants nothing to do with witchcraft or old history, but when Moth decides to peek in her mom's diary, she enters a hidden dimension of witches and starts uncovering more secrets, as well as meeting her grandmother, a regal witch who wants as little to do with the real world as Moth's mother wants to do with witchcraft.  Trying to navigate both worlds, Moth learns too late that she boy she likes has a family history rather opposed to her own.  It all comes to a head in a final confrontation that feels slightly forced, but I will say it's nice to get a real resolution out of a YA graphic novel for once.  Also, there's an adorable talking cat!  Well drawn and a nice solid read, this is sure to please tweens with a taste for fantasy.  I personally would be interested in a sequel.  [4.5]

The Fifth Quarter - Mike Dawson

The Fifth Quarter - Mike Dawson

Lori Block is a fourth grader who likes basketball, but is relegated to the "fifth quarter," a non-essential period before the real game in which typically benched players are given some time to shine.  But she keeps working on her skills and attends a basketball camp, eventually getting pretty good.  however, this comes at the risk of losing her friends, who find her protective attitude toward the game off-putting and insulting.  Even worse, her mom is running for student council, risking alienation from another friend whose father is running against her.  Her father is often occupied with her twin siblings, leaving Lori more and more isolated and out of place.  Can she maintain her confidence without alienating her friends?  A great middle-school coming of age story about maintaining relationships and believing in yourself.  The art is more cartoony than I'd like, but it's not too distracting and sometimes amusing.  [4]

Katie the Catsitter - Colleen AF Venable

Katie the Catsitter - Colleen AF Venable

Katie is a young girl who cat-sits for a lady named Madeline, who is actually costumed vigilante Mousetress.  Katie wants to be a sidekick but Madeline is more or less retired and letting her army of intelligent cats do her work.  She's thought of as a villain, but is more of a leftist animal activist.  Two heroes, the Eastern Screech and Stainless Steel, seem to be framing her for villainy, but Madeline doesn't seem to mind, while Katie does.  The tween subplot is that Katie is become estranged from her best friend, who returns from summer camp with a new nickname and a boyfriend.  Gradually, these two plots merge, as it's revealed that several people Katie knows are actually costumed heroes.  This is a childish and poorly-executed attempt at parody, with a baffling story structure; it has few introductions of the characters, little background on its fictional setting, and has almost no explanation of the action parts of the story.  This couples with extremely basic art makes some of it hard to understand.  Scenes shift suddenly without any clues as to where they are; I only learned that one place was a bodega because it was referred to that way much later.  At one point a character destroys some lines that keep the subway working; the scene then cuts to what can only be a train, and then a station, but the art is so terrible that you can get this only from context.  The end drags and relies on the most basic cartoony slaptick humor to keep things going.  Venable also overuses the beat panel, then a shared laugh that's informed by tired sitcoms.  For tweens only, and only if they care about superhero parody, I guess?  [2]

Black Hammer - Jeff Lemire

Black Hammer - Jeff Lemire

1. Secret Origins - Six superheroes, after defeating the Anti-God, are mysteriously zapped into a small town somewhere, possibly another dimension, where there are no superheroes and something is very off.  The town seems constructed, unreal, and there's a barrier locking them in.  Two of the group, however, seem to know more than they let on,   Sometimes the characters are a little too on-the-nose derivative, but the story is intriguing, suspenseful, and mysterious. [5]
   
2. The Event - When the deceased Black Hammer's daughter arrives to find the heroes who vanished all those years ago, things start to get dark. Madame Dragonfly reveals herself to be more in control of the situation than anyone realizes.  As Lemire lets a little fact here and there slip about the heroes' past and current situation, you want to keep turning the pages.  [5]
3. Age of Doom Part I - Black Hammer's daughter, now the new Black Hammer, travels through a limbo of story (some of it a thin pastiche of legacy or Vertigo characters) before breaking free of the spell that kept the team in the small town.  But if they return to Earth, the Anti-God may return as well.  At this point the series has, perforce, lost a bit of its mystery, but Lemire is still on target with his exploration of comic book tropes.  [4.5]
4.  Age of Doom Part II - With the characters in another Earth, some with their memories and others without, Black Hammer and Walky-Talky try to get the team together.  Colonel Weird travels to a limbo of unused characters and teams up with a humanoid insect detective; some of Barbalien's backstory is revealed; and the team confronts Dragonfly.  [4.5]
5. Reborn Part I - Lucy tries to balance being Black Hammer with having a family, despite her crumbing marriage.  Alternating between 1986 and the current age, Lemire shows how Lucy's story comes together, even as Colonel Weird forces her to make a terrible choice.  [4.5]
6. Reborn Part II - When a mad scientist from an alternate dimension threatens to wake Anti-God, Black Hammer joins forces with Skulldigger to find their dimension's Dr. Andromeda and stop him.  Meanwhile Weird finds a cabal of alternate versions of himself and tries to fix things.  This continues to be a brilliant, suspenseful love letter to comics (with a very deep hat tip to Kirby), full of surprises and thrills.  [4.5]
7. Reborn Part III - Lucy meets the evil version of her father, who tries to convince her to join him; meanwhile her lost family are found in limbo by Inspector Insector, and they go to the "real" Earth, our Earth, where the Black Hammer team are living in peace.  Weird asks Lucy to continue the fight, but having found her family, she may stay on Earth for good.  [4.5]
8. The Last Days of Black Hammer - This volume tells the story of Joe, the original Black Hammer, and how he tried to balance life between his wife and daughter, and continuing the fight as the world's premier hero.  When Anti-God comes, the team decide to go down fighting; this obviously takes place right before the events of book one.  Joe and Lucy's dynamic mirrors that of the grown Lucy with her husband and kids.  This volume isn't as dynamic or startling as the main story, but it's nice to see how it all unfolded before the farm events.   [4]