Marvel Super Hero Squad: Jumbo Colouring Book (Scholastic Australia)

Background

There's nothing new or original here. Scholastic Australia has a pool of artwork that they've long since squeezed the life out of. Now they just shuffle the pages, throw a new wrapper on it, and shove it out the door again. Here we go once more.

Story Details

Square-bound. 8.5" x 10.6". 96 black and white pages on medium-grade stock. Glossy cardboard cover.

Inside, the same old stuff. X-Men, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, and Spider-Man all appear. There's no story, no captions on the artwork. Nearly all the pages are simple art-to-colour, although there are a couple of activity pages.

Spider-Man isn't a particularly big star in this book. He appears in a dozen or so pages, along with some classic villains.

General Comments

Is this... the last Marvel Colouring Book from Scholastic Australia?

I must confess, I really wish it was. These guys have carpet-bombed the NZ/Australia colouring book market in the last three or four years, the same way that Bendon hammered the U.S. market. They can't be doing the brand any good with this rip-off re-release.

Overall Rating

I will begrudgingly admit that the price is at least reasonable. I paid NZ$4 (about US$5), and judging purely by weight, size and gloss, that would have been a fair price.

But I'm sick to death of those same old pictures. Two webs.