4.3/5 stars
TLDR; Definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in real world societal consequences of super-powered individuals and, as the title suggests, strong female protagonists.
Really unique, illustrative commentary on superhero realities. The main character, Alison, is a semi-retired 20yo superheroine who gave up her mask and went to college when she realized that all the crime-fighting and stopping supervillains was doing nothing to save the world. And there’s an underlying conspiracy that the actual people who possessed abilities to make the world better (communicating with disease, providing unlimited energy) all mysteriously died at a very young age.
“The people that worship superheroes or the people that hate us, they’re both making it about us. And we’re going to let you down, because we don’t really know what’s going on more than regular people, and we can’t really do that much more than regular people.”
This story was a very reflective commentary on society, specifically societal issues that will continue to exist even with superheros fighting Bad Guys. The problems aren’t at the individual level; most are at the systemic level. You can’t punch away our horrid American healthcare system, for example. Being bulletproof does nothing to solve climate change.
Since this story was originally published as a semi-weekly webcomic, and then collected into this volume, the pacing was not always consistent (especially noticeable between chapters). Chapters 1-3 were an introduction to the protagonist and the societal dilemmas she was mentally tackling. But it took until chapter 4 to understand some of the origins for their powers, and why only the teenagers and 20 year olds developed abilities. The characters are very human, dealing with very human issues and very human limitations. But also because it’s slower than other action-packed, plot-driven, bam-whap-pow stories, it gives the characters chances to reflect and be more proactive in finding ways to help the world beside just punching evil robots. There’s a specific interaction at the end of chapter 3 between the protagonist and a minor antagonist that truly shows the humanity and empathy Alison possesses.
Some reviews founds the small comments from the author at the bottom of each page annoying or distracting, but I think they enriched the story… most of the time. Plus they make the story a little more humorous and light, balancing out the hard topics the story discusses.
The illustrations were a little bland in the sense that it’s very squared. I’m not the biggest fan of black and white either so I’m biased. However there are a lot of details in the backgrounds that are relevant to the story, but don’t reveal their significance until later, so pay attention. I’m horrible at critiquing art, especially in a fair and balance manner, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in real world societal consequences of super-powered individuals and, as the title suggests, strong female protagonists. I am highly looking forward to reading the next collected volume!
- Goodreads rating – 4.06
- REVIEW – Sean