What if you can leap tall buildings and defeat alien monsters with your bare hands, but you buy your capes at secondhand stores, and have a weakness for kittens, and a snarky comment from Skeptical Guy can ruin a whole afternoon? Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks brings her skills in character design and sharp, charming humor to the trials and tribulations of a young, superhero battling monsters both supernatural and mundane in an all-too-ordinary world.

This was such a fun and amusing book!  Meet Superhero Girl (that's not really her real superhero name, but well she lives in Canada...) as she tries to find her place in the world out of the shadow of her brother Kevin's super-heroic infamy.

She saves cats, helps old ladies cross the street, battles ninjas, deals with a skeptical obnoxious superhero fanboy and searches for an archnemsis (who won't steal her job and become rich from giving up a life of crime).

These are loosely connected comics ranging from a few panels to a few pages, that mostly pick up from where the other left off (except when it goes into the past as Superhero Girl chose to strike out on her own, about half way through the book).

I know Hicks' artwork and charm from the short comics that are occasionally featured on Tor.com (for fannish things--reactions to movies and such).  This is my first time reading an original work of hers and I loved it.  Perfect for all ages with colorful artwork and plenty of humor.

The book begins by having Superhero Girl doing stuff you don't see heroes doing much of nowadays; their own laundry (how to deal with a  shrunk cape!), explaining their weird disappearances to roommates and friends, saving cats (even if they don't want to be saved).  At first this really is just a book of 'day in the life of a superhero' with only the title character tying them together.

It changes when we start to learn more about her past and meet her brother Kevin.  SG was his sidekick back in their hometown and while this seemed fine and dandy for him, she wanted something more.  Wanted to be recognized on her own merits.  The scene where she explains to him is heart breaking on both sides.  Kevin clearly doesn't want her to strike out on her own, but he let's her because he's unselfish.  Equally I don't think SG wanted to hurt him or leave him in the dust, but she couldn't find an identity. 

Anyone with a sibling can understand.  I know I surely can.  Its like 'But wait...why can't we go back to you following me around and thinking I'm the super coolest?'

At any rate I think this will please just about anyone.  Hicks draws and writes for an all ages crowd, but doesn't sacrifice impact.