Amazing Adventures From Zoom’s Academy

(Moon Factor, 2003)
™ and © 2004 Jason Lethcoe

The thought of a school for super-powered youngsters might initially conjure images of Xavier’s or of PS238, but Jason Lethcoe’s Zoom’s Academy is more like Hogwarts than any of those.

There’s a young person, Summer Jones, coming to grips with newfound abilities. There’s a powerful academy head, Professor Zoom, who grooms his young charges in their talents. There’s Graves, the personification of evil. There’s even a faculty member who was once on the side of evil.

None of this is to suggest that Amazing Adventures (or Lethcoe’s comic-book series Zoom’s Academy for the Super Gifted) is intentionally aping Harry Potter any more than every super-hero comic book (or every romance novel or every action film) mimics every other. Zoom’s just happens to incorporate many elements that make that renowned series so popular.

Oh, sure, Zoom’s is “dumbed down” compared to Potter, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. At 148 heavily leaded pages, Zoom’s will be a lot easier for younger children to read (or have read to them) than Rowling’s larger, longer, and more complicated sagas.

But isn’t the name “Professor Zoom” already taken by the Reverse-Flash?

— Jack Abramowitz

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#1
January, 2003
Cover Price: $15.99
1 copy available for $33.00

Jason Lethcoe