Review of “Mascot to the Rescue,” by Peter David

“Mascot to the Rescue,” by Peter David is a unique story about a boy whose real life appears to be linked to the escapades and adventures of a comic book character.

Josh Miller is an ordinary looking sixth grader who attends Demarest Elementary School.  Little do his schoolmates realize, but Josh has an important secret.  Not only is Josh a fan of the Captain Major comic books, but there is a strangely disturbing correlation between Josh’s life and the adventures of Mascot, Captain Major’s superhero sidekick.

Mascot’s secret identity in the Captain Major comics is Josh Mills, a name quite similar to Josh Miller.  Josh Miller’s father mysteriously disappeared just a few months before Mascot’s father disappeared in the comic book series.  Other strange coincidental events lead Josh Miller to believe that he may be the real Mascot, pre-fated to live everything that happens in the Captain Major series.

When Josh Miller tries to act out one of Mascot’s stunts it leads to him meeting Kelsey, a new girl who arrives Demarest Elementary.  Kelsey is slightly obese, but this doesn’t daunt Josh, who believes that Kelsey is Large Lass, another character from the Captain Major series.

Josh tells Kelsey about the strange similarities between his life and that of Mascot.  At first Kelsey doesn’t believe him.  But Josh seems very serious about it.

Then disaster strikes:  The latest issue of Captain Major makes a stunning announcement:  “In the next shocking issue…because you demanded it….the death of Mascot!”

I turns out that readers of the Captain Major comic have never liked the character Mascot.  They want violence, death, and destruction in the series to make it more exciting.  And they want to start by killing off the character Mascot.

Josh Miller takes it very seriously, because he is sure that if the comic containing Mascot’s death is published, he too will die!

“Mascot to the Rescue” is a rather thought provoking book that shows how children can get too absorbed in things such as comic books.  Peter David shows Josh Miller as completely immersed in comics until he begins to see his real life as a comic of sorts.

The writing in “Mascot to the Rescue” was decent, but there wasn’t anything really spectacular about the book to set it apart.  The characters were rather simple, and the only thing that kept Josh Miller interesting was his periodic switch over to comic book mode.  Some of the plot events were rather ridiculous.  It feels as if Peter David wanted to keep the plot exciting, but like a bad comic he put in too much action and not enough balance.

Overall, however, “Mascot to the Rescue” is fairly entertaining, and I am sure that many young readers will appreciate it.

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