Henchgirl

If the cast of Girls found themselves in the Marvel universe, you’d have something like this debut graphic novel. Always quirky, occasionally touching, and surprisingly dark, this book follows Mary Posa, a superpower-less disappointment to her superhero parents, who works as a henchgirl for super- villain Monsieur Butterfly. While Mary’s concerns and anxieties will be familiar to any young 20-something struggling to get by—making rent, dealing with relationships and workplace friction—it all happens against the backdrop of a completely ridiculous world filled with time travel, astral projection, and strange superpowers, like the ability to spontaneously produce carrots. The first few issues of Henchgirl, drawn in a charming style somewhere between Scott Pilgrim and Steven Universe, have a delightful and spontaneous energy, but as the series progresses, Gudsnuk begins stitching her ideas into a narrative and things slow down a bit from the sparkling opening. (Apr.)