Written by Jacob Chabot Illustrated by David Baldeón (2017)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
Once again, I am always on the lookout for graphic novels that I can use in my classroom for Free Read Friday. I have a "Graphic Novel" class in my high school. I found Marvel "Tsum Tsum" Takeover! in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood (along with a two other Cartoon Network books that I started reading and immediately passed on).
The image above is a photo of the cover that I took with my iPad. I usually take the images from Amazon, but it had a different cover. The only matching images I could find where also photographs, so I took my own.
I must've missed the "Tsum Tsum" Craze of a decade ago. I didn't have kids back then and my nephew would've been too little. (Plus he was into stuffed monkeys and pandas that looked like animals, not sleeping capsules.)
On the Marvel side of things, I got most of the references, and recognized most of the characters, either from sporadic reading, from the movies and TV, or just from online conversation.
The basic storyline is that a crate of alien creatures was on its way to The Collector when it's lost and crashes into a roof in Brooklyn where three kids in a superhero club find it. Inside are little capsule-shaped aliens (maybe the length of a kid's forearm) who seem to like the Avengers and superheros. The kids show them videos on their phones, which includes hearing the original Spider-Man cartoon theme song and "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." The Tsum Tsum take on the characteristics of some of the Avengers, right down to their powers.
As a backdrop to this, Ulton has been spotted in Brooklyn, and Iron Man and other heroes are trying to stop him.
As a complication, there's a mean guy living in the kids' building who is actually a low-level crook who just got out of prison and can't get work -- as a criminal. He captures the Spider-Man alien and shows it super villain videos. The alien splits into four, which become Venom, Green Goblin, Rhino, and Ultron. He then trains them to rob a bank, where they take out Ant-Man before they turn on him.
The Collector shows up. Ultron shows up. The Avengers show up. The kids help save the day but are still grounded.
Basically, a dopey story but still kind of fun. I noticed that the aliens have the red and blue Spidey suit and Don Blake Thor, but the book has the red and black Spider-Man suit (and I'm not entirely sure whose in that suit) and Thor is a woman. (I haven't seen that movie, but I remember the fake outrage about the comics.) Ms. Marvel appears but Captain Marvel does not (except in a variant cover). There is a Captain Marvel alien though.
The book is short -- 120 pages, which is four issues combined -- and the last 20 pages or so are just variant covers by different artists featuring different characters (many of which don't appear in this book).
I hope some of my students enjoy it even if they don't get the references or know who all the characters are.
If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.
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