Review: Not Your Villain (DNF)

Title: Not Your Villain

Series: Sidekick Squad #2

Author: C.B. Lee

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Heights, needles (mention), motorcycle crash (brief, no injuries), body horror (mild)

Note: Trigger warnings in DNF books only cover the part I read. There may be triggers further in the book that I did not encounter.

Spoiler Warning: This book is second in a series and this review does contain spoilers of book one, Not Your Sidekick.

Read To: 21%

Back Cover:

Bells Broussard thought he had it made when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can change his hair whenever he wants, and if putting on a binder for the day is too much, he’s got it covered. But that was before he became the country’s most-wanted villain.

After discovering a massive cover-up by the Heroes’ League of Heroes, Bells and his friends Jess, Emma, and Abby set off on a secret mission to find the Resistance. Meanwhile, power-hungry former hero Captain Orion is on the loose with a dangerous serum that renders meta-humans powerless, and a new militarized robotic threat emerges. Everyone is in danger. Between college applications and crushing on his best friend, will Bells have time to take down a corrupt government?

Sometimes, to do a hero’s job, you need to be a villain.

Review:

I really enjoyed the first Sidekick Squad book, Not Your Sidekick, and since that one ended with revealing a major conspiracy, I had hoped this one would continue that. I wanted to see what happened next.

But it backs way up, to even before Jess got her internship in book one, and does the same time frame from Bells’s perspective. Admittedly there isn’t a lot of overlap, since Bells is at superhero training camp and not in Andover, but it felt really jarring to end the previous book by discovering the superhero organization is the bad guys and then start this book before the characters know that and Bells super enthusiastic about being a hero and joining the organization.

Admittedly, I didn’t get very far into it, but Not Your Villain seemed to lean harder on the dystopian elements of the world, especially related to Bells’s family’s farm. It’s different from a standard dystopian, though, because the government never actually shows up or sends agents or anything, characters just say that the government is doing bad things and that’s it. It’s like there’s a dystopian setting hovering in the background but it never truly touches the story.

Bells is increasing as a character. His shapeshifting is awesome, and I’m kinda jealous because what trans person doesn’t wish they could shapeshift? I think it could have been really cool to have the next installment of the series told from his perspective, so it was really disappointing to find that the story wasn’t continued, it was rewound. I may come back to it – like I said, I didn’t read very far and it may have kept going after the events of book one – but not right now.

The Sidekick Squad series:

1. Not Your Sidekick
2. Not Your Villain
3. Not Your Backup
4. Not Your Hero

Review: Not Your Sidekick

Title: Not Your Sidekick

Series: Sidekick Squad #1

Author: C.B. Lee

Genre: Superhero with Dystopian vibes

Trigger Warnings: Misgendering (one instance, accidental and immediately corrected), kidnapping, imprisonment/confinement, kidnapping of parents, injury, violence, racism/xenophobia (by an obviously evil character), needles, being injected with something without consent

Back Cover:

Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.

Review:

I didn’t have a lot of expectations going into this book. I needed a book for work, this one was immediately available at the library. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

On the whole, this book was really just fun. There is some dark stuff that happens, high schoolers nearly dying, and some heavy themes, but despite all of that the prevailing mood reading this story is fun. There’s superhero stuff and a big conspiracy, sure, but there’s also friendship and crushes and romances and high school and in a way it portrays how complicated life is. Jess may have parents and an older sister who are literally superheroes, but she still has to deal with school and internships and a crush on a girl who probably isn’t even into girls.

I hope the world gets explored further in the rest of the series, because it was fascinating. It’s set in the future, where people watch TV on holoscreens and cars are so self-driving they don’t have steering wheels at all and roombas have AI and personalities. And, of course, superheroes exist and are big stars. At first there are only hints that all may not be as cool as it seems, but as Jess and friends start to uncover the big conspiracy, it begins to look like this is a dystopian world where the people in charge are so thorough that nobody even realizes their world is dystopian. I expect and hope there will be more on that in book two.

On one hand, I do have a tendency to guess plot surprises way ahead of time. On the other hand, I feel like all the superhero-related surprises were telegraphed from a mile away. Everything that was superpower- or secret identity-related and trying to be a plot twist I called almost immediately. However, I didn’t guess anything related to the big conspiracy. And even though I guessed all the superhero-related twists, I didn’t mind too much because I was just having fun with the story.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable book. Not perfect and leaning towards the “mindless entertainment” end of the scale, but I enjoyed it a lot and it was an absolutely fun read. And the biggest plot thread in the book didn’t get wrapped up hardly at all, so I totally intend to read the next book.

The Sidekick Squad series:

1. Not Your Sidekick
2. Not Your Villain
3. Not Your Backup

Review: Harleen (DNF)

Title: Harleen (Harleen #1-3)

Author: Stjepan Šejić

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Explosions, guns, mental institutions, nightmares, blood, trauma after an act of violence

Read To: Page 62 of 200

Back Cover:

Dr. Harleen Quinzel has a theory: mental illness is a survival mechanism. As she seeks to help the broken souls of Gotham City piece together their sanity she will become the one thing she fears the most: one of them. A bold new retelling of the tragic origin of Harley Quinn told through the eyes of the only person who knows her better than anyone: Harleen.

A young psychiatrist with a potential cure for the madness that haunts Gotham City, Dr. Harleen Quinzel must prove her revolutionary theory to a skeptical establishment by delving into the disturbed minds of Arkham Asylum’s deadliest inmates. But the more time she spends with her criminally insane subjects, the closer she is drawn to one patient in particular–and the further she falls away from reality. The birth of legendary antihero Harley Quinn and the shocking origins of her twisted romance with the Joker are revealed in Harleen, a stunning new tale of love and obsession written and illustrated by renowned comics storyteller Stjepan Šejic.

Review:

Harleen is a graphic novel that collects three comic book issues (Harleen #1-3) that tell the story of how psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel became the famous villain/antihero from the Batman canon, Harley Quinn. I’m not huge into superhero stories/lore in general, but this was highly recommended to me by a friend.

In order for me to explain why I didn’t finish this story, we have to talk about the story. Dr. Quinzel has a theory about why mental illness happens and how to cure it (and therefore cure the various supervillains that plague Gotham). While on her way home one night, she gets caught in the middle of a robbery by the Joker. He puts a gun to her head and very nearly pulls the trigger before deciding to let her live. This incident gives her horrible, the-only-solution-is-to-never-sleep-again nightmares, and she can’t stop thinking about Joker. Later, she gets a research grant from Wayne Industries to continue her research on mental illness, and is given access to Arkham Asylum to conduct interviews with patients. Of course, the Joker is there. She fears and dreads interviewing him, but after putting it off as long as she could she decides to do it anyway.

That’s all within the first 60 pages. The rest of the story, as best as I can tell, is Harleen slowly becoming obsessed with/being manipulated by/falling in love with the Joker until she tragically becomes his girlfriend and partner in villany Harley Quinn. However, I stopped reading because I found this whole thing completely unbelieveable – I’m 100% sure Harleen is smarter than this.

Harleen is a psychiatrist. She therefore has to be familiar with at least the most obvious signs of trauma. Intense, frequent nightmares containing elements of the traumatic event is such a classic symptom of trauma that you see it in media all the time. So is the freeze-in-terror response she showed when seeing (not even interacting with, just seeing) the Joker at Arkham. There is no way I’m going to believe that a psychiatrist who studies mental illness is not going to recognize such obvious symptoms. And any competent psychiatrist who realized they were traumatized would go to see a psychiatrist of their own (it’s explicitly stated that Harleen does not see one, even though it’s suggested to her) and avoid triggering their trauma since it would affect their research. Harleen could have easily used some of the Wayne Foundation grant money to hire a second psychiatrist to interview Joker.

And there we go. With some use of her psychiatry doctorate and a little bit of common sense, Harleen avoids interacting with the Joker ever again, learns to deal with her trauma, gets the data she needs to continue her research, and never falls in love with/gets manipulated by the Joker in the first place. The end. I find it unbelieveable that this course of action never occurred to Harleen, and there’s no attempt at all in the story to explain it. I’m really disappointed because I thought this was going to be an interesting and tragic origin story, but I have no interest in finishing it because it doesn’t need to happen in the first place.

Review: Hero

Title: Hero

Author: Perry Moore

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Violence/blood, death, homophobia

Back Cover:

The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his father’s pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he’s been asked to join the League – the very organization of superheroes that spurned his dad. But the most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he’s gay.

But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes, including Scarlett, who can control fire but not her anger; Typhoid Larry, who can make anyone sick with his touch; and Ruth, a wise old broad who can see the future. Like Thom, these heroes have things to hide; but they will have to learn to trust one another when they uncover a deadly conspiracy within the League.

To survive, Thom will face challenges he never imagined. To find happiness, he’ll have to come to terms with his father’s past and discover the kind of hero he really wants to be.

Review:

Part of me wanted my last review of 2017 to be more momentous than this, but this happened to be the book I took with me while I waited for my car to get repaired. So it is what it is, I guess. And Hero isn’t a bad book, really.

I don’t know what to say about Thom. He’s one of those characters that’s hard to review – he was a good, solid character who I related to and who developed throughout the course of the story. But at the same time, he was kind of unremarkable. Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t feel like that while reading, but now I’m trying to write about him and I’m drawing a blank.

(Also, he’s very awkward and does quite a bit of putting his foot in his mouth. It made him seem real, but if you suffer from secondhand embarrassment like I do, there are parts where you’ll just want to crawl in a hole.)

I also liked that there were disabled characters in this book – namely Thom and his dad (Thom has some sort of seizure disorder and his dad’s hand is crippled). It’s not something you see a lot and I liked the diversity.

The other characters were all great. They had interesting backstories, quirks, and flaws. Ruth was a fascinating lady and pushed Thom to be a better person. Scarlett started off as the I-hate-you-but-we-have-to-work-together trope but became a friend by the end. Larry … okay, Larry was minor. But you also get backstories and character journeys of Thom’s parents (well, at least his dad), which I thought was neat that the book managed to do that while still focusing on Thom.

That whole “deadly conspiracy within the League” thing? That doesn’t really come up until the climax. Well, there’s a little bit of “the League thinks this villain did this crime but Thom knows he didn’t so they’re looking for the actual culprit,” but that really takes a backseat to the characters. The story is really about Thom dealing with homophobia and the growth and dynamics of him and his team of aspiring superheroes. Sure, there was some action, but it was more emotional than anything.

The only thing I really had a problem with was the romance. I saw it coming (not a bad thing), but the love interest didn’t get a lot of page time. On one hand, I understand why and it would have been hard to work more scenes in with him, but on the other, it felt a little like it came out of the blue considering how little interaction Thom had with him before the end.

Overall, this was a good book. Not spectacular, but definitely better than “meh.” It has its flaws, and for a superhero book it’s more focused on character dynamics and the emotional aspect, but I enjoyed it. It was a solidly good book.

Next week I’ll be doing my 2017 in Books post, where I round up my top reads of 2017, plus a few more I’m excited for in 2018. Stay tuned!

Webcomic Spotlight: SuperCakes

Title: SuperCakes

Author: Kat Leyh

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Nonrealistic violence (e.g. against ice monsters), mild body horror (characters dissolving into liquid/smoke)

Summary:

This comic is a  series of vignettes about super-powered girlfriends, May Ai and Molly LaMarck.

Review:

I found this on a Tumblr list of queer webcomics (which is where I seem to be finding most of my webcomics these days). It’s about two superhero girlfriends and their adventures as superheros and girlfriends. There isn’t really an overarching plot, there’s just a series of short, mostly-unconnected snapshots of their lives – May bringing Molly home for the holidays, for example, and the two of them fighting ice monsters while complaining that the ice prevented their pizza from being delivered.

Like all the webcomics I do in my webcomic spotlights, it’s super short. (At least for now – according to the comments section Kat plans to add more in the future, but as of now it hasn’t been updated since 2014.) And it’s fun and unique. Yeah the girls are superheros and have super powers, but it’s also kind of a slice of life, seeing them interact with each other and other people and complain about forgetting to put away the pancakes when they have to go do superhero stuff.

And it’s neat because sometimes you get epic superhero stuff like this:

And sometimes you get cute slice-of-life stuff like this:

Overall, it’s adorable, unique, and fun to read. And I for one am hoping it gets updated soon.

You can read it for free here!

Review: Sovereign

Title: Sovereign

Series: Nemesis #2

Author: April Daniels

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Extreme transphobia, rape mention, domestic abuse mention

Spoiler Warning: This book is second in a series, so this review will probably contain spoilers of book one, Dreadnought.

Back Cover:

Only nine months after her debut as the superhero Dreadnought, Danny Tozer is is already a scarred veteran. Protecting a city the size of New Port is a team-sized job and she’s doing it alone. Between her newfound celebrity and her demanding cape duties, Dreadnought is stretched thin, and it’s only going to get worse.

When she crosses a newly discovered billionaire supervillain, Dreadnought comes under attack from all quarters. From her troubled family life to her disintegrating friendship with Calamity, there’s no lever too cruel for this villain to use against her.

She might be hard to kill, but there’s more than one way to destroy a hero. Before the war is over, Dreadnought will be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge.

And behind it all, an old enemy waits in the wings, ready to unleash a plot that will scar the world forever.

Review:

After the difficult but absolutely fantastic story that was Dreadnought, I got my hands on this book as soon as it came out … a month ago.

I actually had to take a several-week break in the middle of reading this book. Remember how I said Dreadnought was “difficult” with all the transphobia? This book is worse.

So, if you remember Graywytch from the last book, she’s a major player in this one. With all of her trans-exclusionary “feminist” transphobia and man-hating. And I’m really trying to avoid spoilers here, but there’s a point about right in the middle of the book where really really bad things happen and there was so much pain and hatred and transphobia that I just had to put the book down and back away for a while. So heads up if transphobia is an issue for you – that section is going to pack one hell of a punch.

Once I came back to it after that, though, it was much easier and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the greatest things it has going for it:

• The master plot was fantastic and there’s a massive twist and you don’t find until AFTER the final battle what the actual evil plan is
• Relationship issues between Calamity/Sarah and Danny
  • Pros: Great tension in the story and they’d-better-figure-this-out tension for me reading it
  • Cons: You don’t get as much Calamity epicness in this book
• Character development! Danny grows SO MUCH in this book and it’s amazing watching her mature
• Superhero/law enforcement politics – yes, it’s a thing, and it’s kinda cool
• A superhero secondary character who’s genderqueer/nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns

My only actual plot problem with the book was all the legal stuff. Danny gets involved in a lot of legal battles, and they wrap up a little more conveniently than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind – I was dreading getting through all the superhero action and then having to deal with frustrating legal stuff – the resolution just seemed to come out of the blue.

This book was really difficult, even more so than the first book. I kept anticipating transphobia around every corner, and it was hard when it showed up and a relief when it didn’t. But it came out to a happy ending with some cute romance and I’m glad I finished it. Sovereign wraps up neatly, but if there is an upcoming book three, I certainly wouldn’t object.

The Nemesis series:

1. Dreadnought
2. Sovereign

Review: Dreadnought

Title: Dreadnought

Series: Nemesis #1

Author: April Daniels

Genre: Superhero

Trigger Warnings: Domestic abuse (verbal and emotional), transphobia, rape threat (mention)

Back Cover:

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero.

Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.

She doesn’t have time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer – a cyborg named Utopia – still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

Review:

I heard about this book on Tumblr somewhere when I was looking for some good novels with queer characters. And then I reserved it at the library because A) it was one of the only non-contemporary LGBT books I could find, and B) heck yeah trans girl superheroes!

I read the entire thing in one sitting. Which honestly surprised me because some parts were really difficult – but I just couldn’t put it down.

Not being transgender, I can’t say anything about the realistic-ness of Danny’s struggles, but holy hell were they heart-wrenching. Between her asshole “best friend,” her abusive father (just how abusive gets slowly revealed as the book goes on), and the rampant transphobia among the superhero league in the city, I just wanted to hug her and fix everything for her. And there were several times I found myself mentally screaming to her that none of it was her fault and she’s a wonderful person and … well, I got really, really attached to her.

(Side note: If you’re an abuse survivor, you may find some scenes difficult. I did, but for me it didn’t take away too much from the book – you might have a different experience, though, so proceed with caution.)

The other major character is Calamity, a “graycape” (vigilante) that Danny ends up doing superhero stuff with for a lot of the book. I really liked her – she was the kind of badass been-doing-this-my-whole-life type you’d expect from a book like this, and I liked how her and Danny’s relationship developed. My only problem was that Danny knows her as her alter ego, too, but we only get one (very, very short) scene with her non-superhero side so it felt like I knew a lot about Calamity but nothing about the girl under the mask.

The plot actually has a lot more going on than gets mentioned on the back cover. There’s a major question of “is the Legion Pacifica (the city’s superhero league) trustworthy or not?” There’s Danny and Calamity trying to find Utopia (because besides killing Dreadnought she doesn’t show up until the end). There’s Danny’s coming out to her family and standing up (or not) to her abusive father. And there’s figuring out her powers (which are pretty dang epic), and of course the obligatory rescues and fight scenes and giant mechas destroying the city …

Okay, maybe that last one isn’t obligatory. But it sure made for some awesome mecha-on-apparently-not-indestructible-girl battles.

Overall, some parts were really hard for me to read as an abuse survivor (and other parts would probably be hard for you if you’ve experienced transphobia). But it has a mostly happy ending, the potential for bit of romance in the next book (fingers crossed!) and I couldn’t put it down. I give it two hearty thumbs up and I’m really looking forward to book two!

The Nemesis series:

1. Dreadnought
2. Sovereign (July 25, 2017)

Review: The Hues

Title: The Hues

Author: Alex Heberling

Genre: Science Fiction/Superhero

Trigger warnings: None

Summary:

The Hues is about a group of teenage magical girls who discover their powers just a little too late– the Big Bad is already here and they have only a rudimentary grasp of their abilities and what they’re supposed to be doing. It all hinges on hints and clues regarding the mysterious Jouchi, who may have the answers they seek about how to reclaim their home from the aliens.

Review:

I realize this is not my normal fare for reviews and also that I’ve never reviewed a webcomic before in my life, but bear with me.

I discovered this on Tumblr in a masterpost of … I think it was feminist webcomics? Some kind of webcomic list. Either way, the art and short description (exactly what you see above) intrigued me. So I started reading it. And then I couldn’t stop reading it.

So you know how the Big Bad is already there and they have to discover their powers? Well, the plot starts with an alien attack. And then it just goes from there. There is science fiction alien stuff and postapocalyptic elements . There’s the “who the heck is Jouchi and why are the evil aliens looking for him” thing. And the “most of us are not very good at using our powers” thing. And the “what are we actually supposed to do to stop the aliens” thing. It’s not as much fighting aliens as you might expect, but there’s enough that it satisfies my action-loving brain while still giving plenty of opportunities to grow the characters and their relationships.

The characters! The characters are fantastic and they’re so diverse. There are six of them that the story follows, although there’s one main main one and two secondary-ish main ones (because they come in later in the story) and only one of them is a thin white girl (and only one of them is straight). It’s fantastic.

(I’m not going to give away who is what orientation because that’s part of the plot, but there’s a lesbian, a bisexual, a panromantic asexual, and two who haven’t yet been given a queer identity but who did not deny being not straight. And I’m pretty sure two of them are going to become a romantic thing. I hope. They’re adorable together.)

• Sami, the main main character, is Indian-American and kinda nerdy – she enjoys writing and spends a lot of time on the internet – and generally cute and sweet and adorable.
• Andy is white, chubby, and outdoorsy and very friendly and social and generally a wonderful people person that I would love to be friends with.
• Hannah is the token thin white girl – she’s quiet and prickly and not super friendly but mostly it just seems like she’s got something important on her mind.
• Lauren is fat and badass and snarky as hell. She doesn’t like being told what to do and can handle herself through anything and is just plain epic.
• Salime is possibly Hispanic or mixed race (definitely not white, either way). She’s one of the two late-comer characters, and she’s more cautious and analytical and likes to learn things.
• Addy, the other late-comer, is a dark-skinned fat black girl who is sweet and artsy and creative.

And all of them have EPIC powers!

And just look at this artwork! It’s so gorgeous.

It’s also set in Columbus, Ohio, which I think is really cool because I’ve been there and it’s not far from where I live now. But that’s just me.

The main downside to it is it’s not finished yet. (Yes, I know I’m reviewing it before it’s finished! But it’s so good I just had to share it with you guys.) But I think it’s almost done, and I’m really really really looking forward to reading the rest of it. And also I plan to buy the books of it. Because reasons.

Okay, this is getting really long, so I’m just going to end with: read it. Seriously, it’s fantastic.

You can read it online for free here!!!

Review: The Vindico

Image from ishtamercurio. blogspot.com

Title:  The Vindico

Author:  Wesley King

Genre:  Superhero

Back Cover:

Kidnapped from their average lives, five teenagers are given the chance to change their lives forever.  They are promised super powers – something they thought you had to be born with.  But these powers come with a price.  To get them, they must join a league of the world’s most notorious villains:  the Vindico.

Review:

I picked this book up for two reasons.  One was because Cat at Beyond Books [note: a currently-deactivated book review blog I used to follow] liked it so much.  The other was because I’m a huge fan of well-done superhero books.

I expected a somewhat light-hearted, good-versus-evil kind of story.  But that wasn’t what I got at all.

I only had two problems with the book.  Number one was the sheer amount of characters.  Five teenagers, six villains, a few random friends, a bazillion superheroes from the League … all of whom were mentioned by names that all started sounding the same after a while.

And besides the fact that I couldn’t keep them straight, there were so many of them that I didn’t really get to know any of them.  James seemed to be a totally average kid.  Lana I hardly got a feel for at all.  Hayden thought he was God’s gift to women.  Emily was detached, calculating, and brilliant.  Sam acted like a little kid – which was explained at the end in a perfectly logical yet highly annoying way.

It was annoying because of problem number two – character details.  Emily was Asian, apparently, a fact that was NOT mentioned in describing her appearance, but was dropped in the middle of the book in a “hey, you already knew this” way. And Sam was apparently younger than twelve, a fact that was not mentioned until the last chapter.  I went through the whole book thinking he was a teenager, while I would have liked him much better if I’d have known he was about ten, not just immature.  A few details mentioned earlier on would have spared me a lot of frustration.

I really enjoyed the plot.  It was delightfully superhero-ish, including confrontations between good and evil, and even one spot where nobody (including me) knew who the good guys were.  It was just a whole lot…darker than I expected.

I’d expected more of a light-hearted, comic-book-style, bad-guys-go-to-jail kind of story.  Instead, the Vindico and the League were just killing each other.  That’s not to say it wasn’t bad, it’s just … well, if this were a comic book, I wouldn’t give it to my nine-year-old sister.

This book was hardly what I expected, but I still enjoyed it.  So, I think, would any superhero or comic book fan.

The Vindico series:

1. The Vindico
2. The Feros