Shock and awe—even for jaded WWF fans.
A chance to see her mother alive again propels a young pro wrestler into elimination bouts with foes from around the multiverse—and beyond.
Combining the first seven issues of a comic originally issued in 2022, the tale begins with the accidental death of Tokyo Grand World Heavyweight champion Yua Steelrose, who reads Asian, in a match with hooded Mexican Canadian luchador Cobrasun. It then picks up 10 years later with Lona, Yua’s fierce daughter, trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps—and with the promise of a sleazy necromancer to revive her dead parent if she wins. She’s even willing to team up with the still grieving Cobrasun to enter the otherworldly Deathlyfe Tag Team Tournament, where the outcomes are not predetermined and all of the opponents are fighting for similar rebirths. Demonstrating an uncommon ability in his art to project outsized swagger and spectacle, wild aerial exploits, and spatters of gore delivered by rock-hard fists or folding chairs wrapped in barbed wire so that it all seems to explode off the page, Johnson pits his dynamic duo, styling themselves Sun and Steel, against massive opponents on the way to a climactic smackdown. With a fine disregard for physics, the artist mixes teams freely and has his wiry protagonist delivering as well as taking bone-crunching blows and kicks as she faces much bigger opponents.
Shock and awe—even for jaded WWF fans. (cover gallery) (Graphic fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781534324749
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Image Comics
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots.
A teen navigates different worlds: real and virtual, colonized and Indigenous.
In the near-future real world, Bugz’s family has clout in the community—her mom is their first modern-day woman chief, her father’s a highly admired man, and her older brother is handsome and accomplished. Socially awkward Bugz, by contrast, feels more successful in the virtual gaming world of the Floraverse, where she has amassed tremendous power. Yes, her ’Versona has a slimmed-down figure—but Bugz harnesses her passion for the natural world and her Anishinaabe heritage to build seemingly unbeatable defenses, especially her devoted, lovingly crafted Thunderbird and snake/panther Mishi-pizhiw. Cheered on by legions of fans, she battles against Clan:LESS, a group of angry, misogynistic male gamers. One of them, Feng, ends up leaving China under a cloud of government suspicion and moving to her reservation to live with his aunt, the new doctor; they are Muslim Uighurs who have their own history of forced reeducation and cultural erasure. Feng and Bugz experience mutual attraction—and mistrust—and their relationship in and out of the Floraverse develops hesitantly under a shadow of suspected betrayal. Kinew (Anishinaabe) has crafted a story that balances heart-pounding action scenes with textured family and community relationships, all seamlessly undergirded by storytelling that conveys an Indigenous community’s past—and the vibrant future that follows from young people’s active, creative engagement with their culture.
A thrilling, high-tech page-turner with deep roots. (glossary, resources) (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6900-2
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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