Review: Rocket Girl Volume 1: Times Squared

Rocket Girl Volume 1: Times Squared by Brandon Montclare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this up on a whim, and probably should have put it down once I realized its target demographic is about ten years younger than me, but I finished it as it was a short read. I don't have much to say about it - it's a book about a teenaged NYPD officer who goes back in time to the 1980s to stop the time machine technology that runs her world from ever being created. She's spunky and hates people older than 20. There is a large cast of unnecessary and mostly forgettable grad students who alternately thwart and help Rocket Girl's efforts, and also two pairs of police officers - one from the future, one from the present - who keep trying to arrest her. The art is nothing to write home about and the story is serviceable but occasionally confusing, as there is no visual distinction between the past and the future so jumping from one storyline to another between panels is a jolt. Kids would probably love parts of it, but given that Rocket Girl almost exclusively interacts with adults (and grad students, which I think could be super hard for a younger kid to understand as a concept) there isn't a lot of kid-oriented anything. Even the humor - again, especially jokes about grad students - seems like it's not geared toward its ostensible audience. But it still doesn't quite resonate for adults, either, so it ultimately ends up in a strange nowhere zone where it's not something kids would 'get' but feels too juvenile for both kids and teens.

View all my reviews