Frustrated teenager becomes unconventional superhero
355649
I liked this comic. I was a bit confused by the breaks (are they similar to chapters?) But I enjoyed the story, the characters, and of courses, the superhero-ness! Kamala may be unconventional but she definitely gives the comic a sense of humor. I will definitely be picking up the next one :)
4315974
Near the beginning of Grant Morrison's comic-writing career at DC, he created a character named Flex Mentallo in Doom Patrol. Mentallo's origin was basically a parody of the old Charles Atlas body-building print ad. A scrawny kid gets bullied and works out; eventually he becomes Hero of the Beach.

Flex turned out to be the comic-book creation of a kid named Wally Sage. He'd escaped into the real world. His powers stemmed from his total control of his muscles: flexing them could alter reality! And above Flex Mentallo's head would appear his Hero Halo, the giant glowing words 'Hero of the Beach!'

A few years later, Morrison and soon-to-be-superhot artist Frank Quitely did a Flex Mentallo miniseries set on another Earth. Then the lawyers for Charles Atlas threw a fit, and DC agreed not to reprint the miniseries for some undetermined length of time that, finally, has ended. Flex Mentallo is back! Just in time! The Dark Age is over!

This oversized hardback reprint collection has one major flaw: it doesn't reprint the two or three Flex Mentallo issues of Doom Patrol. I have a feeling another edition of Flex Mentallo will rectify this in a few years. DC is really good at endlessly repackaging material, as anyone who's tracked their shuffling and reshuffling of Alan Moore's DC Universe work well knows.

But other than that omission, this is an awesome piece of metafictional, optimistic, hopeful superhero work. Quitely's art is gorgeous -- the depraved and the heroic and the mundane are all beautifully, sharply rendered; the layout is innovative and non-traditional when it suits the story and straightforward when it suits the story.

And confined to about 100 pages, Morrison distills many of his obsessions in relation to superhero comic books down to an almost pure form. He'd explored these obsessions earlier in his career in Animal Man and Doom Patrol. He'd explore them later in everything from the Filth to Sea Guy to JLA. But here and now, we get the pure dope -- hope that you can cope.

On an Earth without superheroes, a musician in his early 20's talks on the phone to a suicide hotline. He's taken an overdose and he's waiting to die. While he waits to die, he wants to talk about comic books and superheroes.

On an Earth with one superhero -- Flex Mentallo, escaped from fictionality! -- doomsday looms for everything and everyone. Can the Man of Muscle Mystery follow the clues, unravel the mystery, find the other superheroes, and save the world?

How do these stories relate? Read the comic book. Order the workout package. Learn the secrets of muscle mystery! Because sometimes a guy just has to get out of his room and meet some girls! Highly recommended.
3413885
A new race, the Alphas, emerge from the sea, claiming to be the "first men". Humans and Alphas are not getting along very well. Lyric is a young teen, a bit more wild than she should be and not as mature as she could be, but she'll have to grow up fast because she's being pulled into the attempt to integrate the Alphas into human society. Life as an Alpha isn't easy either and humans aren't the only threat. Can they work together?

Undertow is the first of a series. At the end, It is a complete story by itself but still leaves an opening for future stories. Lyric goes through a lot of typical teen angst and she grows and matures. Some things are a bit hard to believe - I mean, I know this is sci-fi, so you have to all for some fiction but sometimes the teens in the story act just too much like hard core, trained adults. Fortunately, the story and characters, feel "real" most of the time.

NOTE for parents:
If you are buying this book for a younger teen, be aware that it is a little dark, some characters die and Lyric and her friends are known to party like college students. I'm not sure why more and more books in this genre feature underage drinking. Maybe some people think it's cool, I find it distasteful. Lyric is 14 and drinking.
1510694
I think I tweeted about this book once by saying something along the lines of "because when the Black Beetle invades your ice-hole, you grab your multi-tool and GTFO." And if your first reaction to that is "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm up for it!" then boy, have I got a book for you.

For me, this is my first foray into superhero fiction (though I keep meaning to lay hands on Landon Porter's Descendants series). At first, I was a little leery: the Spider-Man movies have covered my RDA of angsty super-white-boys until about 2025 - and we all know there is no angst like teen angst.

In this case, it's coming from Spencer Harrington, the powerless son of the world's greatest hero (well, almost-powerless: that boy can shake off traumatic brain injuries like most of us can walk off a charley-horse.) But we start out here with an intriguing premise: what's it like to be one of the Aunt Mays and Mary Janes of the super-verse? What kind of life can you have when you're every villain's dream hostage  and how do you avoid resenting the super-spouse or -parent whose need to protect you has basically turned you into their prisoner?

And yes, there is teen angst, and a few moments of willful buttheadery (I imagine living in permanent solitary at the North Pole doesn't really help the whole social-skills thing), and one or two terrible decisions. But as great as it is to ask the question, "how can a normal kid hold his own in a super-powered world?", I'm even more delighted with the author's answer: "by making friends, using his heart and skill, and relying on the help of good people  supers and not-so-much  to get the job done." Think Big Hero 6, if Baymax were a giant homicidal bug-mech named Cuddles.

But as much as I like what's here in the story, I almost appreciate it more for what's missing. There's no love interest, for one thing (which isn't to say there's no leading lady - and let me say here that I am SO THIRSTY for more stories like this, where guys and gals can have a rock-solid friendship, Captain-America-and-Black-Widow-style, without all the will-they/won't-they business!) No DBZ-esque "I will defeat you with the power of my rage" special-snowflakery. And apart from a lamentably vapid fat lady and one villain's penchant for Alec-Baldwin levels of petulant cruelty, no 'types', either. The characters feel like real people  and more than that, they treat each other like real people. Nobody is the axis of the universe, here. Nobody is unimportant.

So if you're wondering what the trade-off is for all the gorgeous comic artwork you don't get in a novel, I think that's it right there. Sure, there's still building explosions and car crashes and narrow escapes and super-gadgetry and possibly even a cape  but there's also that deeper stuff that characterizes (what I consider) the very best superhero stories, like The Incredibles and Watchmen. We have time to meditate on what happens to these super-people when they're used up and broken, and to the regular people who have to live in their shadow. We have room to consider what separates a good parent from a good-intentioned one, and how to let go of somebody you shouldn't have had to lose in the first place, and why we keep wanting what we can't have. We have a super-verse where the heroes don't all wear spandex, and the villains aren't all bad people.

As it happens, this is a first novel, with some of the challenges that first novels have: I feel like it could be about 10% leaner, and I encourage you to give it 50 pages to really hit its stride. But boy, if this is what a first novel can be - if this guy can pack this much action and drama and humor and heart into a freaking debut - then you definitely want to be caught up and ready before he drops his second. I'll save you a spot in line.
4228082
This story had me at page one. I've never read a super-hero story before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I like superhero TV shows, so I thought I'd like it. John Otte had me at page one. Failstate is hilarious. He's got a great voice and he's this dorky teenager, so really it's young adult speculative fiction which is the sweet spot of books I love.
Failstate was no exception. He has to deal with a "cooler" older brother, feeling responsible for his dad's death, and getting the attention of Elizabeth the pretty new student. Never mind that he's a super-hero with unpredictable powers and a face that has been known to induce vomiting or at least triggering the gag reflex.
Now he's competing on a reality show for a coveted superhero license but his performance is closer to "don't humiliate myself" than "I'm going to win this thing". Then one of his fellow competitors is murdered.
The story takes off from there with all of the crazy super-villains, the knowledge that his superhero idol may not be as "heroic" Failstate believed, the pretty girl is in love with his brother, and a the new kid is convinced aliens are about to invade. So the fun begins.
If you love comic books, superhero movies and TV shows, you'll love Failstate.
4378200
It's hard enough to be a teenager who's just moved to another part of the country and facing the first day of high school in unfamiliar surroundings. Ethan has an additional problem: he wakes up on the appointed day and finds he's been transformed into a girl named Drew, and that he/she has inherited from his/her father membership in a secret organization whose members lose their original identities when they start high school and are transformed again each year until graduation. Their goal is to change the world. The book is aimed at teens and does a good job of showing how Drew accepts the situation, with the help of her parents, and takes the first steps toward fulfilling the group's goals, although not without some painful conflicts. The book shows its intended audience the need for patience, which can be a problem at any age, and the value of learning to see situations from more than one viewpoint. Both teen and adult characters create problems by jumping to conclusions, and it's made plain how conflicts involving parents, children and other authorities can often be avoided if people listen to each other. It's a fast read, quite well written, and enjoyable for teens and those who want to try to understand them.
3297781
This was a coming-of-age story about a teenager questioning her sexuality and dealing with the pressures of her family, school, friends, and girlfriend, all with a touch of magical realism. For me, it was a case of liking the writing and appreciating the realistic themes and characters, but not just loving it as a whole. Mostly because the plot meandered a bit, and most of the characters made me angry, in a way the author intended to showcase the main character's struggles, but still irritated me enough to lessen my enjoyment of the story.
2156922
Summary:  Young Bruce Wayne is looking forward to starting school at the prestigious Ducard Academy, but right from the first day, everyone seems incredibly mean, even the teachers.  He does manage to befriend two kids who are having similar struggles, a boy named Clark Kent and a girl named Diana Prince.  Together, they try to investigate the dark secrets of their new school and who is behind them.  The story is told through comics, letters, journal entries, school forms, and texts.  With the school mystery solved by the end, Bruces mention of an upcoming camp visit hints at a sequel.  176  pages; ages 8-12.

Pros:  Reluctant readers will flock to this book about the young Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  The variety of formats (graphic novel, letters, texts, etc.) makes it an interesting and fast-paced read.

Cons:  The story was a little more complex than I was expecting, and the different types of text could make it a bit confusing.
3128459
This novel begins with every comic-reading kid's dream: acquiring superhero powers. But then what? Maybe it's not as wonderful as you thought it would be. Maybe power does corrupt. In this novel, set in 2001, the college students who become superheros are as blindsided as the rest of us on 9/11, and those developments are the crux of the plot. Poignant and serious; I loved this book.
3179259
Heres something new: a quasi-superhero thief. His name is Touch and he has incredibly keen senses. He is sly, innovative, and determined to protect his one true loveGo. All of this might give him just the edge he needs to survive a brutal struggle for dominance among beings much more powerful than he is. He is a pawn, but he may very well be the one piece that determines who will win and who will survive.

Petersons love for comic books is obvious. His visuals give you the heightened sensation that you actually are experiencing an illustrated work. The protagonists predicament and his devotion to his wife make Touch an unusual contribution to the superhero pantheon. Read Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, while watching The Incredibles, while attending ComicCon.

Or you can just read Touch of Power by Erik Peterson.
2607050
I read The Thirty-Six on the recommendation of a friend.  I was pleasantly surprised!  It's nice to finally read an intelligent comic that deviates from the norm of superheroes with arbitrary powers.  Instead, this book draws inspiration from religious and mystical traditions.  Don't be fooled by the title though.  The "Thirty-Six" aren't a team of any kind.  Instead, the story follows one of them Noam as he tries to locate others like himself while solving a supernatural murder spree.  The book quickly grows epic in scope to explore larger themes such as life's purpose and the depth of human love.  As Noam uncovers more layers to the mystery, we realize that not all the Thirty-Six have the same beliefs about their powers or the same reasoning for why they were given them.  This is probably the aspect of the story I liked the most.  The artwork is attractive, but it's definitely an indie style.  The art makes me think of a more professional version of the old kid's books they would lay around Church at Sunday school that tell Biblical stories.  If you're in the market for something different, this book is a good choice.  It's a mature, easy read suitable for teens and pre-teens as a gift while also appealing to adult readers.
3461941
I read book one and two in this series.  I was so taken aback in book one that someone, so young, so wounded and neglected could be so selfless yet frustrating to me.  I saw her character as frustrating because of her stubbornness and unwillingness to reach out to her support network (her friends).  Simultaneously, I commend her on being able to show such strength and protective nature over her two cousins.  She had her parents taken away from her as a child and could identify with the issues and hardships the kids would face if they lost their parents.  She was a young teen in over her head but trying hard to stay afloat.  The author did a great job of showing us her strengths and her weaknesses and in the end, displaying the undeniable strenght the character portrayed.
1771591
Robert Laughlin is just your average, ordinary, everyday high-school guy. He gets nervous around girls, isn't terribly popular, and gets picked on by his alpha-male older brother who happens to be mom's favorite. But he's also a contestant on a reality show, which isn't very ordinary, especially since it's called America's Next Superhero. Oh yeah, Rob isn't just a reality show contestant--he's a superhero that goes by the name Failstate.

Despite his abilities, there's a far cry between super-powered and superhero. Rob's ability--causing the stable state of individual molecular structure to fail--is difficult to control and often results in him frying electronics and other such devices. He's doing the best he can with what he's got, hoping to win the contest in order to earn his superhero's license, but it's his charismatic older brother, a superhero known as Gauntlet, who gets all the praise.

Things go south when one of the contestants is killed during an off-show patrol. Failstate was supposed to meet up with Lux to go on patrol, but when he nears their meeting area, it notices some commotion and finds Lux already near death. Feeling responsible for her death, Failstate teams up with Lux's partner Veritas and begins to investigate and opens up a mystery that goes deep into the heart of superhero history.

John Otte's debut novel Failstate can kind of be described as Sky High meets The Incredibles, with twists that Disney wishes they'd thought of. At the core of the novel, is, of course, Rob aka Failstate. Rob is seen as a loser and a misfit even though he's been given these incredible powers. He doesn't fit in with the normal kids, because he has a secret too big to reveal, but he doesn't fit in amongst the better-trained and better-powered cadre of superheroes either. To top it all off, his brother succeeds at both. Conflict surges between the two brothers, not just on the show and over their powers but also over the affections of a girl. It's the classic underdog story rewritten in a fresh way in a fun genre.

It's the theme of Failstate that really makes the novel. Rob is just an ordinary kid with extraordinary powers out to save the world. But isn't that what all Christians are called to be? Combining superpowers and faith, Failstate goes through the same journey many of its young adult readers are living out, albeit on a less flashy and grand scale. The plot stretches the bounds of plausibility at times, but when you consider it centers on a reality show for superheroes, it's quite forgivable. Otte's debut packs quite the punch, delivering a fun read with some thoughtful themes. Wholesome, wholehearted, and wholly entertaining, Failstate continues the Marcher Lord Press tradition of offering up the very best in Christian speculative fiction.
2044154
Ethan Young's first comic adds to a growing literature of graphic novels: an autobiographical look, or something close, at his own path through his early twenties. It shows his own struggle as a dropped-out student, would-be comic artist, barely-making-it worker in an animal shelter, and more.

Young strikes a slightly surreal balance of straight narration, epic fantasy, happy affection for his girlfriend Cynthia ("Sin"), and argumentative flashbacks. Of course, all those terms are too crisp and well-defined for Young's smooth melange - but over-analysis would complicate the existential, "here it is" quality that makes this so appealing. Instead, just sit back with Young's skilled, slightly nervous pen drawings, and enjoy. Oh, and hope for more from this promising young artist.

-- wiredweird
988521
You walk into your local comic store. You see this trade paperback on the shelf, forcibly shoved into the corner where there had been no corner at all. You spend a tedious minute or two trying to finger it out and, finally, you start reading through the quip at the back of Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse suite. Oh my, "In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who'd previously shown no pregnancy." Wow, you say. A few rows down, "...the Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers." You are thinking that is so X-Men and it's cool. Then you start reading the line that gets you intrigued, "Conceived and written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance," and suddenly you can't wait to dig into the first issue of the book.

The truth of the matter is that, whether you've heard of the guy or not, you won't know what to expect from this book even after reading the synopsis of the story or listening to a MCR record. It shows shades of Gerard's musical creativity (seen best in THE BLACK PARADE) but Umbrella Academy is an independent work, deserving of appreciation all on its own. Forty-seven children and seven of them chosen to be part of the Umbrella Academy, but to term them as superheroes would be generalizing a little much. From the first fight onwards, Gerard draws attention to these children and when he focuses on the often-overlooked member of the group, Vanya, you realize he is interested in how they, as a whole, interact and feel as well. But he doesn't see them as superheroes, no, not at all, more like super powered kids trained to be superheroes. Gerard doesn't so much emphasize their roles but use them as `vehicles' to carry forward a deeper story of morality and loneliness. What looks shallow on the surface is only the facade for a deeper character study underneath, and that can be overlooked amidst the outlandish action scenes.

He fleshes out the characters and their motivations and their quirks, so much so you doubt not Gerard's ability to juxtapose psychedelic ideas into a unified story with tons of pizzazz. Vanya feels the rejection of her `father,' the alien founder of the Umbrella Academy, Reginald Hargreeves, her loneliness compounded with a unhappy sense of isolation, and turns into a world ending force by a sound generator churning out terrible symphony.

Coming up with such bizarre plots and cramping them in, every few pages, is a tall order in itself but Gerard does it with frightening ease. Coupled with Gabriel's art, the pages read like something Mike Mignola would have written. Then you realize it isn't Mike, it isn't Hellboy, it isn't manga, it is the Umbrella Academy.

All it needs now is a payoff later on in the series to make all his ideas work fully within the Mignola-esque universe Gerard is building here. It's interesting to see how he links it all together and maybe he might just fail in the end.

Judging from his impressive dialogue and outrageous sensibilities, Gerard does indeed have the goods. But to weave everything together? That remains to be seen.
4440771
Fiend is the story of Joe Clark, a teenager who dreams of writing comic books.  Joe loves comics, and has created a character named Toxique, an avenging angel who destroys evil wherever she finds it.

As the story begins, Joe attends a comic book convention, hoping to sell his ideas to a publisher.  Although unsuccessful, he  enjoys the atmosphere of the convention and the company of his fellow enthusiasts.  Not everyone is there for fun, however.  A cold blooded killer named T.T. Dyson stalks the show, and he's not there to buy a copy of the latest issue of X-Men.

Joe becomes embroiled in a confrontation between Dyson and Medea, a woman possessed of supernatural power and beauty, with a fanatically loyal following called the Empusae.  After Medea dispatches Dyson, Joe learns more about her and the Empusae, and eventually joins the group.  Joe, who until now has only read about the heroics of others, becomes an adventurer himself.

Joe and the Empusae become engaged in a battle with Toxique, who has now come to life amidst all this action.  This is a perverted version of Joe's character, so obsessed with her creator that she will kill anyone whom she perceives as a threat to him.  In the course of the conflict, Joe learns some painful lessons about violence and himself.

Edward Bryant, reviewing this book in Locus, said that it "possesses a rough grace", and I agree with him.  The book has a lot of energy--Andersson grabs your attention, puts you on a roller coaster, and sends you careening off into his story.  It's not the smoothest of rides, but it demands your full attention.  Andersson has crammed a whole lot of story into these pages--there's something for everybody (especially comic book fans) inside.
1015901
Seventeen-year-old goth girl and foster child Jen Jones has endured a troubled and violent past that has resulted in a nothing-can-hurt-me confidence and unacknowledged low self-esteem. One day, out of sheer boredom, Jen wonders aloud if she can turn the least nerdy boy out of the geeks, Trevor Hoffman, bad like her. Little does she know how much her own challenge will change her life.
According to Jen, Trevor is a nerdy goody two-shoes, but she classifies him as a cool geek because he wears clothes that fit him, does not wheeze, and does not wear glasses.

Jen is completely confident (though her confidence is one of her walls) and once she decides to go after Trevor, she begins immediately, playing the game like an expert. It was really fun to read and see Jen going for Trevor, even if it was to corrupt the poor, unsuspecting kid.

In my opinion, Trevor was not too geeky, but I can understand how he would seem that way to someone like Jen. To me, he just seemed like a really good guy - he is the owner of a cool car he is trying to restore, he volunteers at the senior center regularly, serving food, playing the piano, and signing (and he is good at it). He treats Jen with respect like he would any other person and he does not judge her by her "freak" appearance.

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