Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Jackie and the Magical Guys is a YA graphic novel about the titular heroine and her efforts to save the future by battling the past. Though she has no field experience, she's not entirely toothless; her mother, a scientist, sent her back with hypos full of super soldier serum. If Jackie can't find appropriate female warriors, she must make them, even though her only choices are young men who, post-transformation, are understandably disinclined to help her.
Prose: The prose is clever and funny, albeit heavy with puns, and Linsamouth crafts humor out of Jackie's incredibly high stakes situations.
Originality: There are many graphic novels about heroines sent to the past, but Linsamouth's choice to depict a heroine sent to the past by her brilliant mother—who charges her to use super serum to transform cute boys into powerhouse girls, all to save the future with minimal loss of life—is both inventive and entertaining.
Character/Execution: Jackie is adorable; she thinks quickly on her feet, with snappy dialogue, playing her role perfectly. The four boys she enlists—Blaze, Reid, Gunner, and Edge—take center stage in many ways, and their characters are as engaging as they are quirky.
Date Submitted: June 27, 2024
