Identity issues continue to haunt the 11-year-old scion of a long line of supervillains.
Caught between the pressures of McEvil family tradition and the good influences of book-smart Sierra Flores and superhero dude Vic Turry, bad-guy–wannabe Steve, he of the ferocious scowl, opaque goggles, and outsized red quiff, sees a trip to the nation’s capital as an opportunity to reestablish his villainous cred by breaking into a secret vault beneath the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, not even judicious use of his smartwatch’s fiendish fart ray proves powerful enough to keep him and his allies from becoming part of someone else’s evil scheme—or to prevent the opening of another wormhole by another minion of interdimensional hypervillain Perses the Destroyer. Is Earth doomed (again)? Or can the destabilized portal at least be closed before it sucks everyone nearby into some random universe? No? Well, maybe Steve’s brilliant and genuinely villainous purple-haired little sister, Eve L. McEvil, can pull off a save? Readers will have to wait to find out, as Turnbloom, the cad, ends this fast-paced and comically melodramatic sequel on a cliffhanger. At least he adds drawing lessons and a featurette starring the inscrutable McEvil house cat (mis)named Mrs. Cuddles.
Less farting but still a gas.
(Graphic fantasy. 10-13)