Target Presents Reading to the Rescue

Writer: Forest Stone
Penciler: Ron Lim
Inker: Scott Koblish

My nine year old niece brought this home from school a a couple of weeks ago, and I just now saw it and decided to give it a look. It is a simple story that has the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, having to fight off the Impossible Man at a kids reading achievement festival.

In fairly typical fashion for these stories, see Superman Radio Shack comics among others, the kids turn out to be the real heroes.

The dialogue at times feels like it is talking down to the readers. Yet the art is very strong, with each hero given a good chance to shine. Except poor Sue Storm, who spends most of the issue with her arms sticking out with a blank stare. Her powers require a lot of thought to showcase well visually, because the power of invisibility is very hard to pull off.

The thing that struck me most though, was that it never talked about the characters origins at all. Which wasn't really needed here, since their powers were explained, but still surprising since I'm not sure how well known the Fantastic Four are. (at least until the movie hits)

I don't read either Spider-Man or Fantastic Four, so I'm not sure how representative it is of how their books are. Yet my niece did pick up a copy of the Spider-Girl Target exclusive when shopping today, so at least it gave her a push towards that.