Max Meow, A Graphic Novel by John Gallagher

Rating: Needs Parent Supervision 

Reading Level: Mid-late Elementary

A silly and far-fetched superhero story of a cat and his Science-loving friend battle a band of evil villains trying to take over the donut industry and the world.

Fairly mild in terms of gore, and I like that the women are modestly clad—not bursting with cleavage the way many comic books often are. I also like that the science-loving heroine is a person of color, because we can certainly need more women of color in STEM.

A couple reasons why it needs parent supervision:

• The bad guy fools the hero into thinking he’s offering a truce, then gives him a solid sucker punch and calls him “sucker.”  Not too awful as far as comic book villains go, but still not behavior to model.
• A couple times, as if really keen on teaching the idea to kids, the author states that many scientists believe in a Multi-verse, where several universes are connected, of which have alien-type versions of reality. In this book, a portal opens to another universe, and the heroes and villains have clone type opponents step into the world from another one. If I’m letting my kid read this, I’m teaching him although it may be “many” scientists who believe this, “many” is a vague term, and I’m very much doubtful that it’s the consensus to believe in a multi-verse! (See below for example photo.)
• The main heroine wears cat ears, and I just generally think its weird when people dress up as animals as an every day thing.  I know this is a double standard because I love Batman.  (But at least he takes his costume off sometimes.)