Klaw: The First Cycle

Gr 7 Up—Mild-mannered Chicagoland teen Angel Tomassini is not what you'd call lucky. His father, who's in the highly competitive fish market, has made some enemies and wants to protect his son, so Angel has his own driver, Dan. But Angel is a bully magnet and has zero luck with the ladies, especially with one girl in particular, Lisa. His luck begins to turn around, then upside down, when he learns that his father's business is actually a front for the mob and Dan is from an ancient line of shape-shifters and can turn into a tiger. And Angel, despite his lack of prowess in other areas, seems to possess some of these powers. As he trains with Dan and learns the ancient Zodiac-based magic, the teen resolves to use his newfound powers to take down the mob and try to score a date with Lisa. Tinged with magic and heavy on the violence, this is a classic superhero origin story in its truest form, elevated by complex ancient magic and government conspiracies. While Ozenam and Jurion weave a complex and often hard-to-follow web, superhero devotees will joyfully untangle it. The illustrations have an anime feel, with dynamic action filling the frames of the comic's many fight scenes. The tiger transformations are particularly stunning.