Super Potato's Mega Time-Travel Adventure

June 1, 2019
Superhero stories can easily break your heart. Batman has never found lasting love, and Bruce Banner has never been able to prevent himself from turning into the Hulk. In the third Super Potato graphic novel, the hero has a chance to go back in time and avoid the tragic circumstances that changed him into a potato in the first place. He's clearly doomed to fail, but he proves that he's not afraid of a time paradox. A group of scientists gives him access to a device called the small-time machine, teaching readers about the importance of hyphens. But he's distracted by mutant sewer reptile Archibald the Scaly and by his first ever love interest, Olivia Olson, who, in comic-book tradition, is immediately kidnapped. The artwork is as charmingly eccentric as ever. The characters look like the Rugrats, if the Rugrats had grown up to be superheroes and mad scientists. The new book doesn't add much diversity to the very white cast, but one of the scientists is a tall black woman. The jokes are slightly better than in the first two books, though, even if the humor relies a bit too much on vomit jokes. No spoilers are required. Super Potato doesn't change his destiny or get the girl. But "the girl" is snarky enough to make readers love her, too. Superhero fans won't be surprised once, but they'll laugh many times. (Graphic humor. 7-11)

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