June 23rd 2020 by DC Comics
E ARC provided by Netgalley
Ashley Rayburn has had a difficult time. Her father is a hardened criminal who is in jail for a crime Ashley helped him commit, and she is jaded by the foster care system. Eventually, she gets taken in by Kitch and Yuka Nolan, a young couple who can't have children of their own. Kitch is an artist like Ashley, and an overgrown child/hipster who matches Ashley's absurd humor. Yuka is more reserved, and works as a research scientist on a project that might not be 100% well intentioned. Ashley manages to make a friend at school-- Luke, who wan to grow up to be a hairdresser and is glad to go along with Ashley's wild schemes. When Ashley breaks into Yuka's closet and finds her top secret briefcase, she finds out that the body paint Yuka has developed can give the wearer super powers, but only as long as no more than three paints are used. Ashley uses the variety of paints to save an airplane and do other super hero like feats, one of which brings her to Yuka's attention. Yuka is angry, but still cares about Ashley (who uses the name "Primer" when she has her powers), but the evil Strack wants the paints for himself. Will Ashley be able to withstand his attacks, save the Nolan's, and continue with her work as Primer?
Strengths: As far as I can tell, this is a new super hero, aimed specifically at middle grade readers. The full color graphic novel is similar to Larson's Goldie Vance and will be popular with students who like comic books and are big fans of art. This would be one to hand to my students who draw all over themselves with marker.
Weaknesses: Ashley's misbehaviors are portrayed as sort of cute. While I am willing to cut her some slack because of her unpleasant upbringing, I was still a little disappointed that she took advantage of Yuka.
What I really think: This is available for the very reasonable price of $8.79 in paperback from Follett, so I may see if this comes out in a prebind, since the paperback would last about two weeks. My students aren't huge DC fans, but the colorful artwork and adventurous story will appeal to some of them.
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