Michele Lee

ISBN: 1401203086

I bought this book.

I’m a huge fan of the cartoon series, as well as a huge fan of the superhero genre in general. I expected some changes, even major changes, between other series and this one and wasn’t disappointed. So let’s start there.

If you, too began with the popular cartoon series then you’ll find that this graphic novel is a sort of sophomore class version of your starting place. (Except that Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg weren’t actually the first class either, but a reboot of the Titans.) And while the cartoon does touch on darker places that one would expect (especially with new shows like Superhero Squad popping up) the graphic novel delves even deeper. Really, despite its title you probably aren’t going to want to let your younger kids read this book. (Just in case the almost nude Starfire on the front cover wasn’t enough to tell you that.)

DC and Marvel have both been throwing in kid/teen versions of superheroes into their books for a while in an effort to continue to engage with a younger audience. But in this series instead of being sidekicks or temporary plot points (or add-a-kids) the teens get to try to find their own place in the comic-verse. In A Kid’s Game Starfire (she of little clothing), Cyborg (the emo-est robot outside of Marvin) and Beast Boy (who is a complete letch, surprise surprise) set out to give the teen superheroes a place of non judgment where they don’t have to hide their identity or powers and can be with people who, like them, understand (where the adult heroes have become so focused on adult matters that they’ve forgotten much of what it was like to be a teen, or just don’t have the time to fight evil and be there for the super kids). It’s a kind of Boy Scouts for super-teens, complete with character dying juxtaposed with helping old ladies cross the street. Teen-dom is a rough time, between being an adult and not really being ready to be an adult, and the writers of Teen Titans keep this (as well as all the sulleness and brattitude teens can hand out) in mind.

The new Titans consists of Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, as well as Superboy (a semi-clone of the Man of Steel), the third Robin, Impulse/Kid Flash and Wondergirl. And it starts out dark, both with the teens still shaken from the death of the first Wonder Girl (which happens before this series starts, but comes up a lot) and with Slade, perennial Titans psycho-bad guy determined to discourage the Titans from reforming—by killing one of their own to prove kids shouldn’t wear costumes.

There is a lot of stuff going on this in book, and at times it led to me feeling confused. Certainly like I’d missed out on some important threads in the hero-verse for starting here instead of…well I don’t know where one would start, which is the biggest downside of comic-reading. It’s not unlike soaps in that you can miss a lot real easily.

Also there’s no real cadence to this team yet (and a lot of complaining, both on the kid and adult side of things), since some members flip flop on whether they want to be a Titan at all, others know each other (which might not be a good thing) and some only have preconceived opinions of each other. Even by the end of A Kid’s Game the team hasn’t really gelled together into something cohesive, but that should be expected. It does lead to an off balance feel in the book ( as does the whole chock full of plot seeds that literally don’t have time to go anywhere in such a short space.)

As a reader I do want to see more of these character though, and see if they’ll manage to grow into their own as people, or just remain shadows of the superheroes they started as. Slade is without a doubt one of the most interesting bad guys, but whether that will be enough to hold a reader’s long term attention or not will remain to be seen. (Which means I’ll keep picking up the graphic novels for now, but I don’t consider myself won over as a fan yet.)

P.S. Starfire is six foot four and a hundred and forty pounds and still build like German stripper? Really DC? I mean I know comics are about as physically accurate as a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but can we at least pretend that real proportions might exist?

ISBN: 0756406080

Princesses book #3

I bought this book.

With this book I’m finally caught up on this series (until March at least) and it’s this one that has the most complex, detailed world building of the three, which is saying something. Hines’ Princess books follow the further adventures of Snow White (Snow, a talented sorceress), Cinderella (Danielle, happily married princess and mother) and Talia (Sleeping Beauty whose tale is possibly the most vicious of all), fairy tale princesses whose stories didn’t quite turn out as legend would have you believe.

In Red Hood’s Revenge Danielle receives a letter from Red Riding Hood (who is now a widely feared assassin), a bold proclamation of her intent to kill Danielle for no other reason than she’s been paid to. But like in all of Hines’ books the plot (and the emotional story) is not so simple. When Snow and Talia come to Danielle’s aid, the three of them find themselves magically transported to the exotic desert land where Talia’s legend began—and where the Queen has put a death sentence on Talia’s head.

Talia must save old friends, defeat (again) the insidious fairy plot that was put in place when she was first “gifted” as a child, and save her kingdom from the Wild Hunt, which savages towns from dusk to dawn. Hines spins out the well-known fairy tale into a semi-religious and definitely political plot to destroy the human rulers of Talia’s land and bring the world under fairy rule. Likewise the subplot of Talia facing up to her own rage over what really happened to her (I’ll give you a hint if you haven’t read any of these books yet—it wasn’t the prince’s kiss that awoke her) makes for a satisfying read on many levels.

Readers won’t be able to help but become personally involved with these princesses. They’re brave, bold, strong and anything but helpless women waiting to be rescued. But Hines also holds respect for the classic feel of fairy tales, creating something strong enough, and interesting enough to stand on its own in the weight of the classic art of storytelling.

ISBN: 9780756405830

I bought this book.

The Mermaid’s Madness follows The Stepsister Scheme in Hines’ Princess series. It focuses on Talia (Sleeping Beauty), Danielle (Cinderella) and Snow (Snow White) whose stories are far darker than Disney would have you believe. In The Mermaid’s Madness Hines takes on possibly the least-happy fairy tale, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid.

Fairy tale fans know that this tale is sad and gruesome while Hines fans will find this to be the prefect tale for Hines’s princesses as Hines uses a heavy subtext of emotional recovery in this series.

Lirea is the Little Mermaid, once friend to Queen Beatrice (Danielle’s mother-in-law) who fell in love with a human prince who didn’t love her and was given a knife that would restore her tail at the cost of her betrayer prince’s life. But something happened and now Lirea is mad, broken and violent. When greeted by the queen after her family of undine return from their winter hibernation Lirea lashes out, stabbing the queen and trapping her soul in the cursed knife along with the prince’s. Now Talia, Danielle and Snow must find the cause of Lirea’s madness, find Lirea herself, and free the queen before her body gives out.

Hines’ work is excellent, layered between the fantasy and fancy of fairy tales with a real world punch that adult readers can’t help but expect. Sure we all want there to be a happy ending, but isn’t it more satisfying when it’s fought for, earned, not merely handed over as if the players are exceptions to human nature instead of parts of it? The Mermaid’s Madness is an excellent retelling of the original that nails the morbid sweetness of the legend while making it a more vibrant, fleshy thing before reader’s eyes. Fantasy and urban fantasy fans are missing out if they aren’t reading this series.