Review: drop pizza, save the world, get back to pizza while it's still warm - this is the awesomeness of Astra
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2013
I guess I've begun equating Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape stories to literary comfort food, stuff I go to when I absolutely require a dependably terrific read. Harmon had already published two novels (Wearing the CapeandVillains Inc. (Wearing the Cape)) and one novella (Bite Me: Big Easy Nights) in Astra's universe. "Omega Night" is a short story that bridges VILLAINS INC. and the upcoming, much anticipated YOUNG SENTINELS.Teenager Hope Corrigan - a.k.a. Astra - has sort of settled in to her dual identities, although it's no easy chore balancing her social life with her superhero duties. One often bleeds into the other. As such, Hope is hanging out with her normal buds, the Bees, when a nuclear strike is launched from the Caribbean Sea. Caught mid-bite on a pizza slice, Astra is dispatched along with four other Alpha-level (meaning, sort of Superman-level) heroes."Omega Night" is another well-written Harmon joint, and it's to be savored as a stand-alone adventure. It also serves as a thrilling little tide-you-over as we bite our knuckles waiting on YOUNG SENTINELS' release. "Omega Night" does beg for the reader to have a smidge of familiarity with Hope's world and mythology, but not to the extent that novices to the series are left fumbling about. For a short story, the jeopardy falls on a catastrophic scale, but we all knew Astra would come thru. She's rapidly become one of my favorite characters in fiction, and it's always fun seeing the world thru her bright-eyed, now nineteen years old perspective. The only downside to this story - other than its brevity - is the absence of the short-fused Artemis, the Batgirl to Astra's Supergirl.