Shawn Martinbrough

This comic book in picture book format is a bit too generic and short, but I like the little taste we are given of the superhero Bobby Beacon and his friends.

Bobby struggles with frustration and temper control as he attends the Academy of Kids with Awesome Abilities, but we are shown what a difference the right teacher can make in a young person's life. And we also get to see what Bobby can do when the baddies from the Institute of Evil (did I mention how generic this could be?) come show more bursting into a school assembly.

If there is a sequel, I hope it is a full-length graphic novel so the characters have more room to breathe and develop more naturally.

And they'd better keep Shawn Martinbrough on the art, because the look of this book is really what tipped it into thumbs-up territory for me.

(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto NPR's Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels list.) show less

A little trite at times, but still manages to be a slick crime comic. Whoever is doing colors on this (I forgot to look before I started writing this) deserves a medal - every page pops in a way you rarely see in comics (and almost never in crime comics). A lot of fun.

I like this series. Volume 3 might not be the best of the bunch.

1 & 2 moved rapidly and combined the subplots of the wayward son and obsessed FBI agent with some interesting robberies. The main theft in volume 3 is epically large, but the crew doesn't come to it in a good way. There is too much subplot and too little attention on the job. In the end, part of the crew is making off with a fortune in art that was almost entirely stolen while we were following the FBI agent and some mob show more flunkies.

I'll read number four. show less

I really enjoyed this. It was fun and a little bit mindless but I never found it predictable, despite the lack of originality in certain areas. And really something doesn't need to be original in order to be good - tropes are usually tropes for a reason. As for the art, I wasn't a huge fan, but I didn't hate it either.