Here’s a comic book that debuted last Wednesday, which I’d never heard of before, the cover just caught my eye while browsing the “this week’s new releases” list on Amazon/Comixology. I saw a Black woman on the cover and I thought I gotta check this out.

From the creative team of writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Justin Greenwood, the lead character is Crackerjack, she’s a Black female superhero, although it’s a bit unclear to me whether she has actual powers or is just highly trained and uses technology. We see her in action, foiling an armored car heist and she’s incredibly agile, leaping and jumping around like Spider-Man, and can emit some kind of white light bubbles as offensive weapons. She has a similar wise-cracking personality to Spider-Man, dropping witty one-liners while taking out the bad guys.

Her real name is Michelle Metcalf (which I have to assume is a tribute to Curtis Metcalf, the secret ID of the Milestone superhero Hardware), and she’s happily married to a man named Adam (who knows she’s a superhero) and they have a young son named Ian (who isn’t).

The other superhero in this book is Slipstream, a young Black man with superspeed powers. He somehow became aware of Michelle’s identity and has taken it upon himself to volunteer as her sidekick, whether she wants one or not. He insists on following her on her adventures, calling her “boss.” She’s mostly just annoyed by him but reluctantly does her best to train him on how to be a proper superhero.

But one night Slipstream ignores Crackerjack’s advice and goes out on patrol when he shouldn’t. He gets captured by supervillains who, aware of his connection to Crackerjack, torture him to get him to reveal her secret identity, which they then use to enact a plan of revenge against her. I won’t spoil it, but you don’t want to miss this cliffhanger.

This is a great first issue, it felt like we were dropped right into an existing superhero universe, reading the latest of a long list of ongoing adventures of this new character. And nice art too. I can’t wait to read what happens next!

Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON