Anti/Hero
Written by Kate Karyus Quinn and Demitria Lunetta
Art by Maca Gil, Sam Lotfi and Sarah Stern
Lettering by Wes Abbott
Published by DC
‘Rama Rating: 7 out of 10
DC expands its reach into the middle grade market this week with its first original middle grade property, Anti/Hero. A body-swap tale of two early teen supers who find themselves on opposite sides of the law, Anti/Hero is set in the suburbs of Gotham but otherwise only touches lightly on its publisher’s long history. Piper Pájaro is the super-strong, heroic Hummingbird, while Sloane MacBrute is a super-smart, extra-sneaky cat burglar working under the watchful eye of organized crime leader The Bear. When Piper stumbles on Sloane attempting to abscond with a powerful, secret invention of her researcher parents, the pair accidentally activate it and find themselves trapped in the other’s body -and, caught off-guard by Piper’s strength, Sloane winds up crushing the device.
Anti/Hero is aimed squarely at younger readers, and while it’s an extremely cute and fun read, it’s also clear this is writers Kate Karyus Quinn’s and Demitria Lunetta’s first foray into the middle grade market. Younger reader books are tough to nail – it’s extremely easy to topple to either side of the fine line between “too simple” and “too old.” Anti/Hero never hits the “writing teens as adults” levels of the young reader-oriented Gotham High, which is great, but it winds up feeling a little too predictable and tropey. It’s good this is set apart from the greater DC Universe, by and large, but there’s nothing that really makes the story stand out as part of the increasingly busy middle grade market DC’s aiming to lay claim to.
That said, Anti/Hero is on the whole a fun and sweet read. Piper in particular is an absolutely wonderful character who deserves the full blown Ms. Marvel treatment from DC – I hope Quinn and Lunetta are given more opportunities to explore these two, because it would be wonderful to see the team grow as a middle grade writing duo while working within a universe they both are very obviously having a blast with. The running theme of Piper needing to constantly snack because of the demands of her powers is a really cute recurring element, and “super-strong gymnast in a luchadora’s mask” is such an absolute smash hit of a concept.
Artist Maca Gil and colorist Sarah Stern knock the art out of the park. Anti/Hero offers the team a lot of opportunities to play with costume designs and small visual gags that Gil nails with an assist from Sam Lofti’s layouts, and Sarah Stern is an exceptional colorist who in particular makes Piper’s adorable costumes rock. The fashion throughout is extremely kid-friendly – they offer looks that would be easy for younger readers to closet cosplay, and fun, accessible superhero costumes any kid could feel like a confident hero in. To the credit of the entire team, Quinn and Lunetta included, there’s a thoughtfulness about keeping these characters youthful and accessible and easy to emulate for young readers that the Anti/Hero team absolutely nails throughout.
This is a fun book, despite its hiccups, and the characters themselves are engaging enough that Anti/Hero will keep you turning the page from start to finish. It would be great to see this team get to work on more books (especially with the Hummingbird) with either more engagement with younger DC heroes or less shoehorned-in Bruce Wayne – Piper and Sloane both would be a great fit in the DC Super Hero Girls milieu, and I think there are a lot of other prominent DC heroes who have as much reason to pop into Gotham for a hot second as the slightly contrived academic competition that takes up a lot of Sloane and Piper’s secondary plot has to happen. Delivering new, unique characters like these is a much stronger way for DC to appeal to younger readers than some of their other young reader-oriented offerings that had more DC names on the cover but less connection to the universe (looking at you, Super Sons). It’s great to see DC take the leap, and Anti/Hero is a solid first attempt.