Written by Meg Cabot
Art by Cara McGee
Published by DC Zoom
This is a graphic novel written by Meg Cabot who wrote The Princess Diaries. I honestly wasn’t that excited when I got the book as I am not a fan of the kind of books she writes.
I decided to give this a chance. This book definitely isn’t for me (nor does it have to be). However, this will be a blast for the right audience, which it is sure to find.
The book start off with a young Dinah Lance playing in a garage band. Her father comes home and gets mad at their music. We get to see Dinah and her family interact. We get to see Dinah and her friends talking about life. It is a very fun and slight set up that is entertaining but not too much more beyond that.
Dinah wants to join the Gotham City Junior Police Academy, although her father forbids it!
She also wants her band to win the Battle of The Bands. Yet, there is a mysterious figure who keeps getting in her way of her goals. That is the basic set up and the creative team really doesn’t push the depth much beyond this.
It is cute. But it feels so much like it was made for a teenage audience and for girls that I just couldn’t relate (I myself am neither a teenager, nor a girl). For me, Dinah comes off as very whiny and self centered. It could be the age group we are dealing with here again, but it made it hard for me to like her at all.
I did enjoy that Cabot has Dinah try to manage the expectations of her parents and her friends. Her friends aren’t as well developed as I would have liked. We get to see Dinah do a little bit of vigilante justice as the book goes on but it honestly doesn’t add up to much.
So again, I am not the audience for this book. But the audience it is for will love it. It has a decent story and I did enjoy the art by Cara McGee. All in all, it is not a book that will change the world, but it does entertain, even if only for a little bit.
RATING: B
