Strong Female Protagonist. Book 1

Locations
Call Number: Teen Graphic Novel / Mulligan, Brennan, Teen Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes / Strong Female Protagonist
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Graphic Novel / Mulligan, Brennan	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes / Strong Female Protagonist	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes / Strong Female Protagonist	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes / Strong Female Protagonist	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes / Strong Female Protagonist	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"With superstrength and invulnerability, Alison Green used to be one of the most powerful superheroes around. Fighting crime with other teenagers under the alter ego Mega Girl was fun until an encounter with Menace, her mind reading arch enemy. He showed her evidence of a sinister conspiracy, and suddenly battling giant robots didn't seem so important. Now Alison is going to college and trying to find ways to help the world while still getting to class on time. It's impossible to escape the past, however, and everyone has their own idea of what it means to be a hero" -- from publisher's web site.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
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Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

This. This is what The Adventures of Superhero Girl wants to be when it grows up. submitted by eknapp on February 10, 2015, 2:40pm The Archie-and-Jughead art was occasionally a problem. It's hard to take seriously, and sloppy composition had word balloons pointing to the wrong character a couple times. And the baggage-laden title could use some work.

But it's damned smart, challenging writing. Alison is a young retired Superman-esque superhero, a sophomore in college, and a frustrated idealist. She wrestles with life as a reluctant celebrity, her failure to have any lasting impact on the world, her fluctuating sense of identity, her nebulous responsibilities to family, friends, and the world at large. Different opinions are proffered about what precisely are the world's problems and which strategies stand a chance at improving things. There are no easy answers. It rings wonderfully true.


One powerful plotline involves a regenerating hero who gives up crimefighting to become an organ donor. In perpetuity. 24-7. This is utterly horrifying when you think about it. It's a beautiful and painful sequence, pitting her need to change the world against her friends' need to see her healthy and whole and not in unending torment, and their skepticism that it will make any difference. Neither side is wrong.


The cast of characters is diverse in a way that I've rarely seen in graphic stuff. Gay and straight, white and not-white, disabled and/or disfigured (...otherly figured?), fat and skinny and nerdy... It slathers on another layer of delicious verisimilitude.

At a couple points I feared SFP was going to veer off to the Loopy Left (like when a president who looks remarkably like W gives a frightening speech full of paranoid nut-jobbiness and incipient Big Brotherism) but it never goes off the rails.