Terry Highland isn't like other kids. Or is she? Sure, Terry is the daughterof an ex-superhero sidekick and, yeah, she has powers of her own, too, but whenyou're a new student at a school like Shuster Academy that's hardly out of theordinary! Terry has a pyromaniac firestarter in homeroom, a werewolf inGeometry, killer robots in gym -- and that's just before lunch! Sounds likea superteen's dream come true, doesn't it? There's just one catch: In order tomake the grade at this school, you can't use your powers. So when three newvigilantes burst on to the scene calling themselves "Biff,""Bam," and "Pow," it has the whole student body buzzingand the administration on the lookout for the kids that would dare to break theAcademy's most essential rule. Can Terry and her friends solve the mysterywithout getting caught in the middle? Sidekicks turns the superhero genre on its head, following poweredkids who would rather start food fights than fist fights and are more worriedabout what to do on a Friday night than the next contrived evil plot.
J. Torres nearly always crafts an entertaining story, but his characters really come to life with Miyazawa on art chores; he captures deftly the exuberance and excitement of the youthful cast and the wonder of a high school devoted to the super-powered. The characters are believable, likeable, and altogether worthwhile. The only real issue as I see it is that Torres sets up the story for further adventures (as none of the key plot points are really resolved) and yet there are no further adventures. It's always painful to see characters and stories left hanging, but especially so when they are worthwhile.
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