AGE OF ATLANTIS

The popular TV series branches out into print.

Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl, protects the citizens of National City from danger with the help of her sister, Alex; the Martian J’onn J’onzz; and the Department of Extranormal Operations. Kara is flying high after a series of victories when ordinary citizens all over the city begin developing superpowers. Some of these new meta-humans try using their powers for good, but of course a few bad apples exploit their gifts for evil. It’s up to Supergirl and her supporting cast to sort everything out and get things back to normal. This middle-grade novel takes place somewhere in the late events of Season 2 of the CW series Supergirl. Mon-El is still on Earth and just getting used to its culture, and James Olsen’s vigilante act as Guardian is fresh to the whole crew. Fans of the show will be able to easily slip into the timeline, and new readers are given enough exposition to catch up. The novel is as light and zippy as an episode of the show, transplanting the beloved characters from screen to the page with relative ease. Less successful is the action, which is clunky and artlessly described. The novel wraps everything up effectively so as to not jostle the series’ continuity, so much so that older readers may feel uninvested by the novel’s end, but young fans will love spending more time with their favorite characters. (Major characters are white with the exception of James Olsen, who is black, and the Martian, who is greenish in his natural guise and black in his human secret identity.)

Kara and her team may be super, but this adventure is just OK.