I should let my kid pick more often – Review #3

Yeah baby – up to three reviews! I’m reviewing this book the same day I finished reading it, which means that Satan is skating to work.

I was in the library with my four year old and told her to pick a book for me to read. She pointed out this one:

I like super heroes, so I went with it.  It took me a month to start reading it because anxiety sucks a fat one but once I did start I was pleasantly surprised.

The book is written from the perspective of an experienced villain – Doctor Impossible – and an inexperienced hero – Fatale (fa-toll). The plot revolves around the disappearance of the greatest hero in the world – CoreFire. Where did he go, will he come back, how can I conquer the world? Regular stuff.

There is a lovely absurd ism to the book. The over the top plots of comic series are spelled out in banal ways, I mean, who hasn’t been to the 31st Century, duh! Seeing the plot points that were developed and played out over years or decades in graphic format described in a few succinct words is both send up and paean to the glorious weirdness of comics.

Grossman puts a spin on all your favorites from DC and Marvel. I had a lot of fun figuring out who was meant to be whom. He inserts characters we are used to seeing mostly in high drama moments into the necessary but unillustrated moments in between the epic conflagrations that occur when they clash. Every body poops, even Super Man.

I really enjoyed this, it’s a light read. I felt that it didn’t quite hit the landing but only in a sense that the climax seemed to come too soon. The plot isn’t super deep (it’s a comic) and if he had tried to stretch it further with anecdote and flashback it might not have worked, so it’s probably for the best that he kept it tighter.

Four batarangs – would read again.

-fh