Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West, by Paul Pope, JT Petty, and David Rubin

Review copy provided by First Second Books.

This is the second of the Aurora West comics. “Roar” is an impetuous heroine who cannot wait to kick monster butt by herself. Patrolling with the rest of her family is not good enough–she wants to go out on her own. And she wants to avenge her mother’s death. In The Fall of the House of West, Aurora digs further and further into the truth of that death, trying to get some answers that can bring her peace–especially if it’s over some monster’s dead body.

Aurora is, as her mentor tells her, braver than she is smart. She also gets lectured on being a teenager who thinks she knows everything, and this adult perspective seems endorsed by the text (sigh). The art sometimes walks the line between exciting and cluttered. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an action-adventure proto-superhero comic, this one pulls no punches–and there are a lot of punches not to pull.

Please consider using our link to buy Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West from Amazon. Or book 1, The Rise of Aurora West.

Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux