Book Review: Strong Female Protagonist Book One

Book: Strong Female Protagonist Book One by Brennan Lee Mulligan with illustrations by Molly Ostertag

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

With super strength and invulnerability, Alison Green used to be one of the most powerful superheroes around.

Fighting crime with other teenagers under the alter ego Mega Girl was fun - until an encounter with Menace, her mind-reading arch enemy, showed her evidence of a sinister conspiracy, and suddenly battling giant robots didn't seem so important.

Now Alison is going to college and trying to find ways to help the world while still getting to class on time. It's impossible to escape the past, however, and everyone has their own idea of what it means to be a hero....

After a phenomenal success on Kickstarter, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag bring their popular webcomic into print, collecting the first four issues, as well as some all-new, full-color pages!


Rating: 5 stars

Review:

The first volume of Strong Female Protagonist is about former superhero Alison Green a.k.a. Mega Girl who decides to give up being a hero. Instead she attended college and works as a firefighter. Her revelation to quit the superhero work came after she received some unsettling information from supervillain Menace who surprisingly had decided to give up being a villain. The information made Alison feel like nothing she or any of the superheroes did was truly making a difference. The world wasn't getting any better.

As Alison goes about her day to day life, she still finds herself encountering the superhero world she left behind. From showing up to protests to dealing with a villain who showed up at her college looking to settle an old score. She is also trying to understand Feral, an old friend, decision to do harm to herself all in the name of helping others. But it's what her friend wants to do and she will be saving lives but it will cause her immense pain to do so.

Alison is also friends with the former Menace a.k.a Patrick but it seems that he is keeping something hidden from her. There is a growing wave of information that Menace has returned since most believe that the villain was in hiding instead of calling it quits and it's possible that Patrick is trying to find out who the new Menace is.

The last issue (or the 4th chapter), is part origin story that showed how Alison and the rest of the others acquired their powers while the other part is set in the present and showed Alison and her family dealing with a family matter her father's health to be exact. You get to see how despite Alison having all of these powers there is nothing she can do to help her father. It's an emotional ordeal for the entire family but it also helps Alison to bond with her younger sister Jennifer.

Following the end of the first four issues (chapters), is a short story that follows Professor Chakravarti in India as she tries to talk to another superpower being who is under the impression that he is a god and not a human who has acquired powers. After being ambushed, she had to make a quick escape.

This was a very good read because you get a smart and interesting look at the life of a former superhero and how her decision to quite is affecting her and her family. I wish I had known about this, I would have been reading it sooner.