John SazaklisRecensioni

Heroes

Poison Ivy! Bright red! Voluptuous green! But, but, but... whe... where's Harley Quinn?!

This book had a good message. Sometimes when authors/DC is writing about Bizarro they can go quite insane. Either trying to make him too good, too bad, or alternatively totally and utterly crazy and I think that in this book the lines was mostly well walked.

I will say that the Bizarro speaks seemed to be different than usual. Usually he says the opposite of what he means, but, in this one his vocab was just babified. Perhaps they thought it would be easier for the middle readers, but, I’ve been reading Bizarro speak since I was this age and I managed to figure him out.

Well, Brenner loved this! He's so into Ghostbusters right now.

Very fun read for me to share with my 4-year-old son and introduce him to Hoppy the Marvel Bunny and other silliness.

This comic book was very simplistic, which would make it easy for a young reader to keep up and get used to the format. The illustrator used full spreads, which really helped to expand the view rather than limit it by a single page spread. There were one to two comic windows per page and they were used like a camera lens, starting on the outside (like at a building with silhouettes) and going inside (seeing who the silhouettes are of).

The colors were very bold and eye catching. Classic comic techniques, such as the ones used for punching, speed, and loud noises, were used.

The characters were very basic and had there not been dialogue tags, I would not know who was who. This was not a story with a whole lot of character depth or even plot. The dialogue tags were often repetitive, meaning that if a sentence ended with an exclamation, it would be followed by "so-and-so yells." I was nice to see third person present tense done well. It is such a rare way to write, but it worked here.

On other hand, the simplicity and lack of strong character development did not work. I did not like how many nicknames some of the characters had. It was confusing and I am not a huge Batman fan, so I had very little previous knowledge to go off of. Other than those things, I would say the book was okay.

**Spoiler**

Batman battles against Fright club and saves the day.

Loosely based on the movie, this almost awkwardly short book starts out exactly like 'The Man of Steel' and then ventures off when the villains come around. They at first mimic the scene from Superman II, the original sequel, where the foes are discovering they have powers due to Earth's atmosphere. The end is a quick and simple battle. With how short the book is, I wish they would have narrated the opening more and jumped into the fighting/conflict sooner so it followed a more believable progression.

I didn't care much for the book because to me the writing style is awkward. It's chopped and like telling a lesson, which many children's authors make the mistake of doing when they're writing for the impressionable young. You can still write for growing minds in a way that makes the words themselves fascinating too - this book failed to do that. The choppy, pedantic writing style is forgiven a little because of the polished artwork kids will like, but overall the story doesn't come across as 'super'.

Someone clearly had a lot of fun writing a children's book for Batman and Robin's crusades. The puns are outrageous but they fit into the very young audience, reminders of cheesy lines from the Batman TV series. The artwork is such fun, full color, creatively detailed considering the audience. They did a good job to keep the kids enthused by breaking text segments into boxes and charts ala comic-book style. There's a nifty little intro of the main hero players before the book starts, then one for the villains as they break free. It's a short thing but should be perfect for the very young, who should find this book funny, lots of fun, well written for their age, and tons to look at if Batman is a hero of theirs. There's also the funny pairings for the villain that may sound plausible for little kids, but the adults know makes no sense at all, such as the Penguin going to take over the zoo.

Summary: The book starts off with the story of Bruce Wayne, Batman, as a child and how he became and orphan and how that experience made him want to protect the city in which he grew up. It is then described the preparations he made to be Batman. It also described his allies and the villains that are his main enemies.

Reflection: The story gives some good background on the character, and it is an enjoyable story, but it does not have much of a story aspect after the initial origin segment of the book like other stories in this series have.

This beginning chapter book is a part of a series from DC comics. With the help of friends and pets Aqualad, the son of the Sea King must protect Atlantis from an evil villain. Not a graphic novel but the bright illustrations on each two page spread move the story swiftly along. Words like BOOM and ZZZZAP are presented in colorful interesting fonts within the text. A glossary is included at the end. This book and series is might be just the ticket for moving reluctant boys into chapter books.