Marvel Super Hero Squad: Black Paper Colouring (Scholastic Australia)

Background

This "Black Paper Colouring" book from Scholastic Australia takes the standard "Marvel Super Hero Squad" childish-style line-art illustrations used by many different books, and inverts them to be white lines on black paper. Crayons are included.

It is one of several dozen Marvel (including Spider-Man) colouring and activity books produced specifically for the Australia/New Zealand market. U.S. collectors need not apply.

Story Details

Like its sibling Amazing Spider-Man: Black Paper Colouring (Scholastic Australia) book, this one also is 8.5 x 10.6" square-bound spine. It contains 48 black pages with white line art. On the cover is a plastic holder with eight differently-coloured crayons. The crayon holder can be unclipped, and then re-sealed again for convenient long-term storage of the crayons.

The artwork is identical in style (and very likely taken from the same source) as every other "Super Hero Squad Colouring/Activity Book" that I have seen produced anywhere in the world. The big-name super-heroes get "Squaddie" equivalents. Villain appearances are heavily slanted in favour of Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Loki, M.O.D.O.K. and The Sentinels.

General Comments

There's very little creative content in the book. The activities are spectacularly uninspiring. The real selling point of this book is the black paper and the included crayons.

Overall Rating

I have no love at all for the "Super Hero Squad". I find the stories vacuous and the illustrations lacking in any originality. But the black paper is a pleasantly new format, and even at NZ$12.99 this feels like a reasonably-priced product given the high production quality.

Let's give it a "you get what you pay for and nothing more" rating of Three Webs.