this was so cute! i love graphic novels and the blue-purpley art style was amazing. engaging story, this was an afternoon well spent

I'm a big fan of non-traditional superhero narratives so I was intrigued by this one. My issue is, I have no idea where the series is headed. Is it going to explore some origin mystery? There were hints of that but just a taste. We go hard core into the superhero thing for a chapter or two, then it's about trying to fit in at school and the difficulty of making friends, powers aside. And one whole chapter was bout playing Magic. I wanted a clearer idea of the larger thrust of the plot.

Sweetie is the story of a teenager who teaches herself the moves to be a superhero. It's a fun, all ages book. I dig the graffiti inspired art designs. The series has potential. Dillon just needs to work on his storytelling and lingering subplots. #1 from the numbers gang is alluded to multiple times after his capture but the plot point ultimately goes nowhere. Instead we mainly focus on Sweetie making friends with other nerds. That's fine, but that's not the same book that was presented in issue #1 with Sweetie taking on a terrorists in a mall.

Sean Dillon and Steven Petrivelli deliver pre-teen readers a new teen superhero in Sweetie. Initially presented as klutzy and "star-struck," Maggie--whose parents call her 'Sweetie--is teaching herself the stunts and techniques of her favorite superheroes and colliding with the floor. She doesn't have much promise of a superhero then, but her secret determination to imitate her superheroes, learn martial arts, and train intensely helps her evolve into a self-made superhero while in high school. In this collection, Sweetie battles terrorist and a dictator--none of whom like the idea of being beaten by a "little girl." And her classmates--except one--still thinks she's a nerd.

Dillion and Petrivelli's art sticks to purples, blues, and oranges but manages to make the monotony expressive and jagged. One highlight in the art is Maggie's facial reactions. The brown-skinned superhero is often unamused and unphased by the theatrics surrounding her. Even her running is presented as a smooth, effortless triumph.

Altogether, the collection nails a charming story at a speed great for middle-grade readers especially those who may be novice in reading comics. Lovers of Artemis Fowl, Black Panther, Sankofa's Embrayce, or the likes may find Sweetie better categorized in children's graphic novels--and highly enjoyed there.

This was a super fun read perfect for middle school and up. The artworks is bright and colorful and our “superhero” is a kick but woc. Sweetie is a little shy and unsure of herself, but she can handle her own in a robbery. But this superhero book isn’t really about superheros. It’s about being the quiet kid, the geek, the one always left out. It’s about finding your posse and your role, and knowing that everyone has their strengths, weaknesses, and specialties. I loved the message in this work. I loved the artwork. I loved the story. More please.
August 4

Thanks NetGalley for this fun ARC, in exchange for an honest review. So I love Sweetie, I love the story, the characters, the art! Everything! I really need to know what happened to her mum, so they’ve got me for at least another volume! I really enjoyed the writing, the subtle encouragement for all the nerds out there! Just plain awesome!

Childishly brash artwork, silly characters, and a tweenage-friendly concentration on fandom meant this was just not for me.

Maggie aka Sweetie makes for a just-as-dark but made for kids superhero like Jessica Jones. She is a loner who finds a group of friends she needs as much as they need her. Although I do not normally gravitate towards graphic novels, I can see this appealing to reluctant readers and girls looking for empowering main characters and positive role models. I would recommend this book to readers 4th grade and up, but younger readers will be able to follow along with the story.

First I want to thank the publisher for allowing me to read this book. However, after a few pages I couldn't continue the story. This was not the fault of the cute and amazing characters, or her sweet parents, or the great art, or the fact she just kicked some serious butt, but the overdose of Copyright 2018 Action Lab Entertainment. For review only. sentences that are ON EVERY PAGE. And not just one sentence, oh no, 17 of them. And they distract oh so much. I can imagine you want to have it on your page somewhere, pirating is a serious thing, however the whole page of it? No. Just no. I am already easily distracted by things and this doesn't help me focus on the story or the character. I am constantly checking out those copyright things. :|

A different kind of superhero!
Maggie is not what you would expect when you hear the word "superhero". For one, she's female. She's also a pro at fighting. Maggie is the kind of superhero we sorely needed; she's a role-model for all the little girls out there who aspire to be something different to the female stereotype of having to be seen and not heard.

***It's incredibly annoying that Action Lab not only watermarks every page, but that it is lines saying "Action Lab" for lines ALL down EVERY page. This makes it difficult to read, and it interrupts reading flow, especially for a comic. Although I understand that Action Lab wants to prevent/discourage piracy, this is too much. For this reason, I'll probably be hesitant to request any of Action Lab's titles.

2.5 stars rounded up for improving towards the end, and to account for the fact that I'm not a middle-grade reader in the target audience

I read this as an advanced ebook from Netgalley.

The beginning of this comic in which Sweetie is very young and doing crazy tumbling while her father worries about her was, well, sweet. However, after this chapter I felt pretty ::shrug:: at this comic until the end, when it turned sweet again, because it was more about getting over one's awkwardness, sharing hobbies, and making friends. Otherwise, despite the cool concept of Sweetie having superhero-like abilities all through practice, the action storyline was pretty forgettable. I liked the linework, but I was unenthused about the giant flat blocks of color. It made it seem that this would be better presented as a webcomic in a smaller format so it didn't seem like a lot of saturated empty space.

I'm just going to say it: I'm hoping that Sean Dillon is, or at least knows, a female with textured hair. Even then, it annoys me that Sweetie's huge hair is mentioned off-handedly, and is obviously used for its visual impact. I mean, this is pretty cool in [book:Skyward, Vol. 1: My Low-G Life|38812870][book:Skyward, Vol. 1: My Low-G Life|38812870], but at least in that setting, there's no gravity. In this book, Sweetie's hair just seemed like a way for the art to read more "urban," and I was also unimpressed by how stock both of the main characters are, and the fact that it felt superficial, but intentional, that Sweetie is a female character of color with a white nerdy sidekick. When people ask for more representation, (or want to have female main characters because girls are the larger graphic-novel-in-book-format consumers in the middle grade market) I doubt they meant this.

Sweetie Volume 1 is tailored to a younger audience. Sweetie is a self taught superhero, any move she has seen in tv or movies she has practiced until she got it right. This volume covers her first real fight with bad guys but spends a lot of time with her trying to make friends and just being a kid. Parts of the story are told with little dialogue and then parts seem to be overly wordy for a little bit of an inconsistent feel. The characters are cute and sweet tossed in with a little bit of awkwardness and toughness. The art feels cute with the drawings and colors working well together. I could see my youngest child enjoying this (she's nine). My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

This was a cool graphic novel with some good art and story to it. The watermark throughout made it very difficult to read though.

What I appreciated most about Sweetie is the beauty of the fluid artwork. The story is entertaining and I would gladly share this book with comic book readers young and old.

I was not able to open the file. It's an ACMS file not a pdf, and wouldn't open with Adobe Reader, or on my kindle.

Maggie isn't a standard fangirl. Determined to become a true superhero, she learned all the techniques and moves of her favorite stars and superheroes. But his activity has caused his isolation... His passing in high school will nevertheless make everything switch ...
Griffin, one of her classmates will surprise her in the middle of a fight against a group of villains. Completely amazed, he will get closer to the girl and make friends with her.

The small group of teenagers that formed in this volume was very endearing, with their personalities rather eccentric and passionate.

Before the story, what attracted me to this book is the graphic style: very angular and colorful, I like the cover and I was very happy to find the same style in the book.
Maggie's moves are very dynamic and make the action "alive", even (and especially) in fictitious fights ... And her giant hair makes it more epic! ^^

The only negative point of the edition of this comic is the copyright that has been applied on all pages of this digital press service. I know it's a protection against theft for the authors and the publisher, but it sometimes disturbing me in my reading...

In short ... A very nice discovery, which I hope I can read more! ^^
It's to discover from July 2, 2019!

Disclaimer: I have voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy from NetGalley, thank you!

Actual rating: 4,5

This review may contain minor spoilers!

Back in the day when I was in my reading slump, there was a time when I spent my days browsing and reading webcomics. I loved the unique art styles, ideas for plot and magical worlds created by the authors, however, since I have a problem keeping up with ongoing media that phase ended after a while. That is until I found the NetGalley graphic novel section and picked up the first volume of Sweetie.

Maggie is a young girl just about to start high school. However, the day before he happens to find herself in a shopping mall attacked by a mercenary group called Numbers (their code names are, you guessed it, numbers). Maggie does what every sensible kid her age would do - she beats the bad guys up and hands them over to the police. After all, she’s not your usual nerd. Since she was a kid, she’s been learning martial arts by copying fighting styles she’d seen on the TV. Just your everyday past time, right? Right.

The next day in school Maggie meets a boy called Griffin, who happened to be at the mall during the time of the attack and had seen her beat the mercenaries up. From then on, Maggie and Griffin slowly build a friend group that will help Maggie become more confident in her social skills and stop feeling like an outcast.

I admit the premise had me quite skeptical at the beginning. After all, a little girl learning martial arts at home on her own to the point when she can take on 13 grown and trained men seems a little ridiculous. However, after the first chapter, I decided that I don’t really care because Maggie looks really cool jumping from one driving truck to another and I’m here to have a good time not to be petty.

The art style is simple, cartoonish and very pleasant. Characters look different enough from each other to be recognizable. The backgrounds are sometimes minimalistic but never leaves you confused. I especially adored how Maggie looked, her huge hair and the clothes she wore gave her so much personality. I also loved how every chapter starts with a picture of Maggie sitting on the rooftop with more characters joining her as she makes new friends.

As far as a character comes, I loved both Maggie and Griffin. A big plus is that Maggie despite being strong in a fight has a hard time talking to others and is a bit awkward. I love how she comes off as quiet and cool but in fact, she just doesn’t know what to say. Her friendship with Griffin is adorable and they both make mistakes and work to fix them and make their bond stronger.

Griffin at first seems like this fanboy sidekick character but he’s actually much more. He has hobbies outside Maggie’s interests and there are things in which he’s better than her, like tabletop games.

When it comes to the other two, we got much less of them but I can say that Marlon is quite adorable in his extrovertness and enthusiasm. I also love how he was playing a bard in the card game chapter. Julie at first seemed a little obnoxious to me but in the end, I didn’t mind her as much as I thought I would.

I’m really curious to see more of the Numbers guys that got captured and the two policemen investigating the attack in the shopping mall.

All in all, Sweetie is a promising graphic novel with a cute cast of characters, colorful art and a story that has the potential to develop in a really interesting direction. The idea of a girl self-training to be a superhero is a bit over the top but it works if you decide to just roll with it. I will definitely keep an eye for the future volumes as the first one got me curious. I would recommend this to young as well as a bit older superhero story fans who don’t try to measure everything in the genre with a ruler.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yes I totally read two graphic novels in a row. No shame in my Graphic Novel game! This is the most I've read all year!

So I came across this novel on Netgalley because it was on the "Read Now" list, and whenever I get to see a girl that looks like me on the cover, I have to support it. Her hair may be a lot cooler than mine, but I am already on Team Sweetie from this point on.

Well, I don't think she likes anyone calling her Sweetie for real, unless it's her parents. Which speaking of, I need to know what happened to her mother!

I love how Maggie basically taught herself how to be a super hero, even though she doesn't call herself one.
From the beginning, you see her learning how to do different stunts and martial arts moves in her room, to the dismay of her mother and father because those stunts are very dangerous. She could easily hurt herself, or worse. Luckily her mother and father learn to support her "hobby" and that's where her bout as a super hero comes to play. She doesn't consider herself a superhero because she wouldn't want to have something bad happen to someone and she wasn't fast enough to get to them, but I think she is one of the best superheros ever for that very reason.

She moves so fast, not even bad guys can hit her with their bullets. She's shy and seems sometimes awkward or anxious in social settings that don't involve her fighting bad guys, but I think the addition of her new friend Griffin will teach her that she doesn't have to isolate herself from the rest of the world like she thinks she does.

This graphic novel was very sweet, and although it ended in such a cliffhanger - I can't handle it! - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this one, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

I loved this graphic novel. The artwork and coloring was absolutely gorgeous. The story was quick paced. It included the backstory without overwhelming the reader with exposition. The main character was fun, and interesting and her sidekick (not really a sidekick) was very relatable. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

I was not expecting to find myself totally in love with this book--but I am! The art is fun, perfect for its audience. The story is engrossing and funny. And the CHARACTERS. Oh my word.

Maggie is our main character. She has big hair, loves to imitate fight scenes in movies and shows (and is fantastic at it), and it totally helpless in social situations. But she's willing to try to make friends when Griffin, a fellow nerd, finds out that the 'superhero' who saved him at the mall is Maggie. He's lovable and excitable, super nerdy, and just plain adorable. Then there's Merlon and Julie, equally nerdy, though with very different personalities.

I just love how everyone is super weird--it's hilarious. The characters totally stole the show in this book. I'll be on the lookout for Volume 2!