Octo-Man and the Headless Monster #1

Walter, Marco, and M.L. are inseparable pals, always getting into adventures and scrapes courtesy of Walter’s endless ideas and his brash alter-ego, Clint McCool. Armed with his best friends, his many ideas, and a hat with six powerful buttons on it (according to Clint), they find themselves on a movie set, only for Clint to accidentally spoil a scene and damage the lead monster’s costume. Can Clint and his pals make things right and save the film?

Everyone knows a rambunctious kid like Clint. I have several nephews like him, loaded with boundless energy and the reckless enthusiasm of youth. But somehow, Clint takes it to another level, one that makes him staggeringly unlikable. He rarely thinks about the consequences of his actions, drags his well-meaning friends into trouble, and is borderline rude to his exasperated mother. Why should the reader like him? Because he has buttons on his hat?

I realize this this is meant to be a story about ingenuity, about fixing a problem of one’s own creation. That’s all well and good. But at no point does the reader get the sense that Clint has learned anything. I suspect in further installments he will remain the same agent of chaos he was here.