Minion by John David Anderson (review)

Abandoned at a White Castle as an infant and adopted by a mad scientist, Michael Marion Magdalene Morn is already not your average fourteen year old, but he also possesses some seriously superhuman powers of persuasion. In this companion to Anderson’s Sidekicked (BCCB 9/13), the city of New Liberty has been forsaken by its supers and is now economically depressed, leaving its inhabitants turning to petty crime if they’re to survive at all. Michael and his dad live much the same way, using their talents to pull bank robberies—just enough to pay the bills—until a new cadre of silver-masked goons controlled by the Dictator start making hits, followed by the blue-suited, flashy Comet. When the Dictator makes Michael’s dad an offer he can’t refuse, Michael must sort out his notions of good and evil and figure out if people’s action are ever really truly either. Deliberate pacing propels readers along, and the theme of the ambiguity of right and wrong is contemplatively interwoven with some real kick-butt action. With the success of franchises like Despicable Me and Maleficent, there’s a niche to be filled with good bad guys; Michael, precocious in a street-smart and world-weary kind of way, but prone to middle-school snark and susceptible to an other-side-of-the-tracks romance, fills the bill admirably. Drama, intrigue, and an antihero: this one’s got it all for kids with a bit of a taste for the dark.