Hannigan's WWII-era superhero series is back in action with this follow-up to Cape (2019). Fresh off their victory over Hissler and success foiling a Nazi spy ring, the three newly minted superheroes (Mae, Akiko, and Josie) teleport to San Francisco in response to a letter reporting that Akiko's mother is missing. Here, Josie and Mae get their first glimpse of Japanese American internment camps and the inhumanity of Executive Order 9066. Their search for Akiko's mother quickly becomes entangled with a villain named Sidesplitter, who is causing destruction and chaos in the city. Readers will instantly be caught up in the story's quick pace, and its action scenes get comics treatment in Spaziante's illustrated spreads. Code cracking plays a large part in the narrative, pulling in the girls' (and readers') puzzling skills and Purple, the encryption machine used by the Japanese in WWII. Back matter gives further historical context for real-life details, figures, and events in the story, making this more than a superpowered read. A cliff-hanger ending will leave readers eager for book three.

The puzzle-solving kid superheroes from Cape (2019) team up with real-life World War II heroines.Josie and her friends Mae and Akiko have secret identities: the Emerald Shield, the Violet Vortex, and the Orange Inferno. The three comics-loving girls now have superpowers and a superhero mentor, but the war is still endangering them all. Now Akiko's mom has gone missing from the Manzanar internment camp, but they don't have time to focus on that. San Francisco's being attacked by Side-Splitter and his army of evil clown clones. Pitch-perfect action scenes right out of golden-age comics-"Curses on you, Infinite Irritants!" wails Side-Splitter, as his red-nosed, floppy-shoed clowns attack-are complemented by sequences illustrated in comics-panel form. As white, Irish American Josie, African American Mae, and Japanese American Akiko receive help from some of the war's real-life female cryptographers and spies, they solve numerous puzzles, including Morse code, acrostics, and a cryptic message that reads "∞ ∆ |^^| ≈ |º|." Most of the puzzles are presented with enough information to be cracked by interested readers, as well. Historical racism and segregation are absent except for the internment camps, but the contrast between the injustice of the internment camps and the patriotic sacrifice of the deported internees is front and center.A winning blend of comedy, superheroics, inspirational women from history, and puzzle-solving. (historical note) (Historical fantasy. 9-11)