Team Spidey Does It All! (Spidey and His Amazing Friends)

K-Gr 2--Peter, Gwen, and Miles are Spidey, Ghost-Spider, and Miles Morales, a trio of superheroes who team up when needed to help others and foil villains. Peter and Gwen are white; Miles is Afro-Latinx. As this is a tie-in comic to the cartoon series, certain elements are pre-established, such as a "webquarters" hideout and robotic helper Trace-E. Large panels, brief chapter lengths (ranging from two to eight pages apiece) and short, simple dialogue balloons are friendly to early readers. When villains do appear, the heroes leap into action to prevent or undo harm, not to fight. For example, Peter, Gwen, and Miles work as a team to stop Green Goblin from stealing parade balloons, eventually webbing him to a wall. Some Marvel cameos include Black Panther, Hulk, and Ms. Marvel, who help retrieve a lost cat and prevent Doc Ock from flooding a park. The book encourages parents to read along with their child, with notes about panel order, reading aloud, character introductions, and asking questions about the story. VERDICT Accessible layouts and guidance make this superhero digest for little ones a gentle introduction to superheroes and comics in general.--Thomas Maluck