Very cute with some clever moments. Middle-school is causing Betty and Val's friendship to grow apart, an exploration of new hobbies, and some self-introspection.

Despite not being super familiar with Archie/Riverdale, I thought this was an adorable debut for a new series.

Also, love the shout out for library science.

3.5

She’s rude, can’t keep her hands to herself, and #TeamTooMuch, and he’s got no backbone whatsoever. Nagatoro needs to get her life in order. She's the main one talking about the MC is a wimpy, virgin-loser boy, yet she's so thirsty for him. What does that make you, Nagatoro? Even she realizes she goes too far often, but Nagatoro never formally voices that to the MC besides wiping his tears (that she causes). At one point it seemed her teasing was getting less brutal and they were starting to have normal conversation, but she regressed.

I thought this was going to be light, harmless teasing, but it borders on full-on bullying. None of this was endearing unless you like sadistic characters and sexual jokes. This is for the crowd that likes to be stepped on, I guess.

Pretty dumb (in a good way), but I enjoy the childlikeness of the story, just seems like a bunch of kiddies messing around with a paranormal element that works. I didn’t think I would like this story, but it’s charming. I HATE the font tho.

3.5^

Junk gets serious, and a vicious fight ends in death. I love when superheroes/superpowers meet morals & ethics. It’s always fun. Of course, now Mark has two women in love with him to deal with as well. What’s a guy to do? *eye roll* Also, I feel really bad for the mom. She’s been long-suffering for a while now.

Her husband wasn’t who she thought he was and he almost killed their son. He leaves and doesn’t care about her anymore (so he says). She feels lonely and turns to drinking. She decides to get her life back together and pursue a career. Her son pops up with his step-brother, from the man who left her, and kind of hints for her to take care of him. She gets attached to said baby and then a villain bent on revenge, beats the snot outta her. I want to see some happy moments for her.

I like this. It has such a Sunday morning comics feel, y’know. This also has to be Gownley’s most racially-diverse series too. There’s some real heart here, and the dialogue’s witty.

kudos, for subverting the reader. I was just counting down the pages until Kirby died (morbid I know), but he didn’t!

A lot of the story’s events are farfetched like…

how’d Kirby manage to keep up his identity as a viral youtuber(?). surely, some kid would’ve known him. Where was he living at? In another foster home?

, but kids will love it.

Again, this is a story made for kids in mind. All the teachers are literally super-villain evil haha, so that’s going to appeal more to a kid angry at teach for too many Zoom assignments more so than an adult who knows teachers can be multifaceted (tho there are some seriously miserable teachers).

Still, I liked reading this for the most part. There are also multiple plot points with Kelly's letters to Mimi, Raj's subplot, Kirby Finn shenanigans, and the countdown of reasons not to grow up.

3.5

This volume has more of the same cute illustrations and cat shenanigans. I didn’t find the jokes funny, but I do acknowledge I’m not the target audience. Now, question: Why does this series insist on this abysmal TINY font? Just increase it one or two sizes, pleaseeee.

Not too bad! The idea of a school for (up and coming) mad scientists and the classes they take is interesting. For example, the school prides itself on some cross-species transplantations/Frankenstein experiments and killer robots.

I found the MC too stupidly naive, and it's not in an endearing way. How many times does it take for her to learn this gothic, eldritch school is immune to her tears and whining!?! Still, she's nine, so I get it.

I thought the ending was nice and subverted a few things.

SN: The artwork on the cover and the artwork inside is drastically different

2.5