Book Review: DK's 'We Are Super Heroes'

All Special. All Different. All Powerful.

So says the tagline of this delightful early readers book from DK Books. We Are Superheroes is aimed at children aged 5 upwards, but younger children can enjoy it too, with a little help from an older reader. It’s intended to be a primer for heroes from across the Marvel universe and aims to reflect the diversity of its current catalog.

We Are Superheroes is a slim volume, and is more like a picturebook in appearance, though there is more text to a page than a usual picture storybook. It contains 14 heroes across 32 pages with each hero occupying a double-page spread. Most of one page is taken up by an evocative drawing of the hero and the other contains two paragraphs of information about them, with two bubbles of quick-fire facts. One bubble is always, “I am.” (e.g. “A fair leader, a kind brother to my sister, Shuri, proud of my country.”) and the other, “My hobbies.” (“Martial arts, trying out Shuri’s new weapons and gadgets, learning languages from around the world.”)

The 14 heroes included are:

Ms. Marvel
Black Panther
Squirrel Girl
Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
Captain Marvel
Brawn
Jubilee
America Chavez
Professor X
Captain America
Moon Girl
Hawkeye
Ironheart
Doctor Strange

Not being a comic book follower, there were a few heroes here that I hadn’t heard of. It’s great to see some of the new characters collected together to introduce them to a readership beyond traditional comic book consumers.

The book is everything an early-reader book should be. It’s an engaging subject with bold pictures. The fact-bubbles provide snappy information that draws the reader in. We Are Super Heroes will appeal to a wide range of readers and should help fire the imaginations of a whole new generation of superhero fans. Which is exactly the point of its existence.

You can pick up a copy of We Are Superheroes here in the US and here in the UK.

GeekDad loves to review Marvel books—you’ll find lots more reviews here.