Eleven-year-old Tommy is having the worst year of his life. His best friend avoids him; his parents are constantly fighting, and he’s mercilessly bullied by older kids in his new school. Tommy escapes from his mundane problems into a fantastic world of a Saturday morning cartoon called Order of Cosmic Champions, in which heroic warrior Masculon battles evil king Skullagar and his horde of monsters. When the company behind the series announces a contest for a new Order of Champions action figure, Tommy submits his design in hopes that winning might solve all of his troubles.
TOMMY AND THE ORDER OF COSMIC CHAMPIONS is a story of a kid learning to navigate the murky and frequently painful world of adulthood. Anthony D. Grate and Anthony J. Rapino don’t shy away from darker topics like parental neglect, depression, bullying, and strict parenting bordering on abuse. But they write with nuance and empathy. It would have been easy to make Tommy’s parents villains. Instead, the authors depict Dave and Suzanne as ordinary people struggling to make their marriage work. However, divorce may be a healthier option both for them and Tommy.
The authors make this family drama more palatable by coating it under twin layers of 1980s nostalgia and a fantastical adventure. Tommy goes on a trip across the United States, traveling from Ohio to New York. He has exciting adventures, makes new friends, and visits the biggest arcade ever! He also meets characters from his favorite cartoon series. Or does he? The novel deliberately keeps things vague. We never learn are these incredible characters secret visitors from another universe or merely a way for Tommy’s overactive imagination to deal with complex emotions.
It is easy to imagine a darker version of this novel that deliberately undermines the 1980s nostalgia prevalent in pop culture these last few years; an unromantic look at growing up in the American Midwest decades ago. This would have been a deeper, more challenging read. But would it be as much fun? That’s unlikely. As it is, TOMMY AND THE ORDER OF COSMIC CHAMPIONS may not be perfect, but it is an entertaining and captivating tale.
TOMMY AND THE ORDER OF COSMIC CHAMPIONS by Anthony D. Grate and Anthony J. Rapino is a well-told coming-of-age story within a shiny wrapping of the 1980s nostalgia.
~Danijel Štriga, for IndieReader