This book is just so cute. Admittingly, I may be a bit biased. I know Eric. He’s a friend who both Kate and I once worked with. We always knew he was super talented and has a successful career illustrating for DC comics and other comic companies. Years ago, he introduced Wyatt and Adeline on a comic strip website and I loved them then. I was sad when he decided to end it. It’s amazing that they are getting they are getting their own book now.
Wyatt Flynn is your typical middle schooler when he was messing around in the evidence room of his father’s Sheriff’s office and he gets super powers. His poor father doesn’t know what to do. He’s a single dad with two young kids and now one of them has super powers! Super powers that he doesn’t know how to use and will only get him in trouble. The book opens on the first day of school, where Wyatt is excited to see his friends but Dad is super scared that he will do something to out himself. Wyatt is not the brightest. Unlike his sister, Adeline who is a genius. She’s so smart she skipped two grades and now she and Wyatt are in the same grade. Not that Wyatt minds. He likes hanging out with each other. When, a fire breaks out near the school, Wyatt with the help of Adeline go to put it out but how do they get back into school without getting caught? Adeline was a plan for that. She’s the literal brains of this operations. Her alter ego is The Outstanding A-Plus! So cute.
Kids will love this book. It’s fun, funny, colorful and fast paced. Both Wyatt and Adeline are relatable even with their powers. Wyatt may not be the smartest but he’s kind and is earnest. Adeline is smart and brave and confident and knows her worth. The artwork is the perfect blend of the Sunday morning comic strip and modern graphic novel. Full of color and details that brings you into the story and giving readers all they need to know to learn each characters feelings and thoughts. I really liked the styling of the panels. I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who has kids. Boys and Girls will love it and so will their parents. Go buy it!
Ms. Marvel is every fan girl or boy who has ever wrote or read fan-fiction or squeed over their favorite celebrity. She is everyone who has every suffered from self doubt but still fought through it. She is everyone who still sees the good even though she has seen some pretty awful things. Ms. Marvel is a hero. I love her. She is beyond funny. She is smart. She is brave. She is relatable. She is everything you want in in a hero. Why isn’t she in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet?
You don’t need to be a girl, Muslim or a superhero to identify with Kamala Khan. She’s your typical teenage girl living in the world of social media and SAT’s. She wants to fit in with the kids at school but also please her family. She wants to be her own person and not be defined by her gender, race or religion. She wants to make a difference and help people and when she is given that chance she jumps right in. Kamala lives in Jersey City, NJ and loves the Avengers. She even writes fan-fiction about them, which I would really love to read. Are those anywhere online? Like all parents, her parents want the best of her and to them that means that she follows her Islamic teachings and listen to her parents. Kamala is a girl fof both worlds, she is a Muslim but also an American teenager. She wants to go to parties and do normal teenage things. One night she sneaks out of her house to go to a party when a mysterious fog rolls in. Soon Kamala is having a vision of Captain Marvel and she finds out that she has morphed into Carol Danvers old identity of Ms. Marvel. A not so nice girl from the party is in trouble she saves here. When the brother of his best friend, Bruno, gets into some big trouble Kamala uses her new powers to help. Bruno is also a genius and just so happened to developed a new compound that makes her clothes stretch when she does. To say that Kamala is likable would be an understatement. When she gains her powers she doesn’t shy away from them but embraces them. Just like her heroes, she doesn’t hesitate to help those in need. Even when of those is the girl that just made fun of her earlier in the evening. I’ve already bought the other volumes in this series. I can’t wait to read them.
For a superhero who has outlasted all by Superman, Batman and Captain America, she doesn’t get the recognition she deserves. She was created to inspire young woman to take up their rightful place in society as her creator William Moultan Marston once stated that in the next 1,000 years, Woman will rule the world. He wanted a superhero that embody female strength can be just as strong as any man if not stronger. To truly understand Wonder Woman and her place in history, you really have to know who origins and the man (and the women who inspired) who created her. William Moultan Marston was an heir to a family with a long history. An only child who was doted on by his mother and four aunts. His wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, was just as educated as he was and was often the breadwinner of the family and his other wife, Olive Byrne (yep, he had two wives) was once his student and the caretaker. He was a lawyer and academic. He invented the lie detector. He wrote screenplays and worked for Universal Studios during the earlier days of Hollywood. He was a little bit of everything and a little bit of a mess. He failed as more then he succeeded but all of it culminated in creating Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth was an extension of his life work of seeking truth through his own lie detector machine and research. Wonder Woman’s bracelets were inspired by his second wife’s, Olive Byrne,bracelet that she wore instead of a wedding ring. Speaking of Olive she was the niece of Margaret Sanger. Champion for birth control and founder of Planned Parenthood. Feminism was strong in the family. Actually the suffragist movement very much influenced Wonder Woman as the stories and imagery can be seen all over the the early Wonder Woman comic book. This was a very easy read that goes into the great detail of William Marsters life and highlight moments in his life that he drew upon to create his Amazonian. It may take a while before you get the actual creation of Wonder Woman but Jill Lepore does a great job of showcasing how people, situations and politics would influence Moultan Marsters and how they ended up in his work. How an old professor turned into Dr. Psycho. Or how the art of Lou Rogers inspired story lines. How the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady shaped Wonder Woman’s character and how his own wives and children breathed life into her as well. Sadly, it also shows how the Wonder Woman changed after Marster’s death. Like many women after World War Two, Wonder Woman was forced back into the kitchens even if it went against her origins. She may have gone completely by the wayside if it wasn’t for Women’s movement in the 60’s and 70’s but even then she wasn’t the same. It’s sad to see that many of the issues that Wonder Woman faced in the late 30’s and 40’s we are still facing today. The criticism of her is still charged against many female protagonist of any genre. Progress has been made but we are still so much to go. You to like this book you don’t know need to know anything about Wonder Woman or even comics to enjoy it. You just need to have an appreciation for a good story and kick ass woman.
I didn’t know much about Captain Marvel besides she is soon to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. OK, maybe not that soon since she has yet to be cast and her movie keeps getting pushed back. (Thanks a lot Spider-Man!) So, I thought I would give her a shot. If I’m going to start reading comics, I figured I might as well start with a character that I don’t already have a history with and start fresh. Not to mention I wanted to read a story with a female lead.
2 Women, So Many Books 