Supermom: Expecting Trouble

In this affable, sitcom-esque superhero comedy, Jade Faraday uses her electric powers to fight crime as the superheroine Voltra, with her mom and teenage sister as backup. The family business is disrupted by Jade’s unexpected pregnancy, the result of a fling that turns out to have been a very bad idea. Not only does Jade have to hide her baby bump while confronting supervillains, the pregnancy begins to sap her powers. The narrative, while loose on plot, is peppered with clever banter and maternity jokes, including an ob-gyn who specializes in the unique challenges of super-pregnancies and a visit to a superhero baby shower. Most of the characters are familiar genre types, though Dischordia, a villainess, has unusual music-based powers (a concept that goes underused). Unfortunately, the uneven, by-the-numbers art isn’t a great fit for the lighthearted, character-driven story; action scenes and monsters are drawn effectively, but too often the human characters have ugly, distended faces with awkwardly exaggerated expressions. The result is a good-hearted, sporadically entertaining comic that starts with a promising idea but struggles to develop it effectively. [em](May) [/em]