Incorruptible

Gr 9 Up—As former supervillain Max Damage continues to work on his reformation, he uses a kidnap victim to pose as his teen sidekick, Jailbait. This is done because the original Jailbait, not part of Max's attempt to turn his life around, is being used as leverage against Max by local crime mastermind Deathgiver. The core emotional conflict here is sound: Jailbait's been made to feel worthless all her life, until she attained power and attention as a supervillain. Now that Max is reforming, it feels to her like one more rejection. Annie, his reluctant volunteer thrust into a world of crime and comic-book violence, serves as an identification character and a fresh starting place for the title. Her story is less resonant than Jailbait's—a simple revenge origin—but Annie stepping into Jailbait's role is only going to create future conflict, which should be good for the ongoing story. The artwork falls just short of ordinary, with some attempts at bravura action failing to achieve the level of breathtaking. It works hard to incorporate realistic detail and still appeal to fans of superhero comics, but it is weighed down by the generic qualities of the latter. Similar things could be said about the story, which is solid, with good beats and strong emotional foundations, but which fails to do anything beyond the mundane. The book has solid craftsmanship that could go someplace interesting with time, if it works its way through its current muddles.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH