Review of
Avengers
Assemble: The Forgeries of Jealousy, by Kelly Sue DeConnick
et. al. ISBN 9780785167983
Four out of five stars
This graphic
novel of the Avenger super hero team shows a clear tilt towards the teen
female. Spider-Girl is in the Avengers headquarters and her first action is to
complain about Iron Man stepping on her toe. She has something important to say
about her missing social studies teacher, but she is brushed off by the
Avengers because they are dealing with an inhuman pandemic.
Like all teens,
Spider-Girl complains about the reaction of the adults until she finally
screams out her message. Since it is an important one, two of the Avengers are
assigned to accompany her on their mission of discovery. They act very well as
a team, yet find themselves in a life-or-death situation.
The story
contains a classic ruthless mad scientist character, only this time it is a
beautiful blonde female. It is fundamentally a tale of the adolescent
Spider-Girl engaged in a series of battles against the bad girls and guys with
a rotating sequence of Avenger sidekicks.
Through it all Spider-Girl alternately complains and then is
dramatically enlightened about the tactics of battling the super baddies. It
ends with a scene that all teens can relate to, Spider-Girl is in her civilian
clothes rocking with her smart phone.
This novel
demonstrates the stated desire of the Marvel executives to broaden their appeal
to include females. Even though she has super powers, Spider-Girl is still
fundamentally a high school girl and is sometimes treated like one. At times it
is justified and other times it is not.
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