Excelsior!

I read the collected trade of "The Adventures of Superhero Girl" Saturday night. I enjoyed it quite a lot - nothing groundbreaking, but it was cute and funny and I liked all the characters. Plus, there's just something really fun about the particular niche of the genre that it occupies.

I don't know why, but the more fun, innocent looks at superhero stories are often among my favorite. G-man, Monster Society of Evil, Mini Marvels. I think it has to do with what I see as the basis for superhero stories - that they're stories about hope, about overcoming struggles, and it doesn't always have to matter how BIG those struggles are. The important parts are the hope, the perseverance and the attempt to remain good throughout it all. 

Superhero Girl played a little with the whole "super-siblings" thing, which I also tend to like. In this case, I found her older brother, Kevin, to be a really fun character. He comes across as a bit full of himself, but it's hard to tell what's ego and what's just persona. 

But I think my favorite character was our hero herself. I loved her dedication to her little town, her serious efforts at even the smallest acts of superheroing and her refusal to be the kind of superhero other people want her to be. She's in it for her own reasons and stays true to that. <3 font="">

This isn't to say I don't like more serious superhero stories as well. I certainly do. But a lot of the time they get to ratcheting up the angst over and over and over and OVER. It gets tiresome and drives me off, which is why I keep books like this around. they're... refreshing. :)