When Wax, a young DJ from 1980s Brooklyn, accidentally kills a robot overlord with his funky fresh beats, his friends have to help him quickly train in the deadly art of "sci-fu" in order to defeat the remaining robot warriors and save Earth from destruction. As crazy as the concept sounds, overall it's a pretty classic samurai story r hero must defeat several bad guys to get to the boss, but only by believing in himself can he defeat the evil overlord and get the girl. But it's Mercado's artwork that truly puts a fresh spin on this tale; his heavy outlining and bright colorization make his cartoon characters jump off the page, which makes the many action sequences all that more impressive. Those sequences make up the majority of the piece. Meanwhile, the keen mixture of epic fighting scenes and hilarious rap battles ("My beats make me strong like a pot of hot black tea / And I'm radioactive like Madame Curie") will definitely play well with readers looking for something fast and breezy.

Graphic novelist Mercado celebrates the joy of hip-hop. This fun, candy-colored Afrofuturist saga set in 1980s Brooklyn introduces 13-year-old budding DJ Wax; his ice cream truck-vendor uncle Rashaad (he swears in ice cream flavors); his pizza-deliverer-turned-best-friend, Cooky P; and his brainy, truth-telling little sister The D, the tale's real hero. The story opens as Wax produces a colossal sonic disaster (according to his family) for his crush, Pirate Polly. The lovingly honest criticism spurs Wax to try again—and, in the process, he transports them all to a Blade Runner-inspired world called Discopia, accidentally kills King Chug Chug, its ruler, and calls forth a mentor, Kabuki Snowman, who teaches the teenager Sci-Fu, described as "a mix between a martial art and a musical instrument…to manipulate and modulate the sound waves around you" in order to defeat the king's son Choo Choo and his mixed-gender crew, the Five Deadly Dangers. This trippy, psychedelic adventure, with chapters labeled like album tracks, is as much a call and response to Vijay Prashad's Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting (2002) and a riff on astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson's comment that all of the universe is literally made of stardust as it is a not-so-subtle visual reference to Samurai Jack's villain Aku and a nod to Get Out's lifesaving-friendship trope.A lighthearted tale with black and brown characters, matter-of-fact Brooklyn bilingualism, and a solid message of creating through failure and love. (Graphic science fiction. 10-14)

In 1980s Brooklyn, eighth-grader Wax may be respected for his DJ skills (and, with his flattop and track suit, he looks the part), but his raps leave something to be desired. After Wax-s spinning attracts extraterrestrial attention, he-s transported to the futuristic city of Discopia along with his friend Cooky, his crush Polly, and his family. Wax quickly learns the art of Sci-Fu, a mixture of music and martial arts, from Kabuki Snowman, just one of many odd creatures they encounter. In a series of musical confrontations reminiscent of the Scott Pilgrim stories, Wax must fight the Five Deadly Dangers before taking on giant robot Choo Choo. Mercado has created a visually delicious adventure that does its best to imbue a visual medium with the power of sound. Mercado uses onomatopoeia and visualized sound waves to emphasize that this is an aural adventure; color-coded speech balloons help readers keep track of who is spitting rhymes. His caricatured figures and dynamic layouts, coupled with a neon palette and graffiti flourishes, make for an entertaining story with a little something for everyone: hip-hop, tech-driven action, and romance. Ages 9-12. (Mar.)