Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)

The Kiddo brought this one home from the school library.

Title: Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 1999
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey

An alien invasion of the school cafeteria is turning the student body into zombie nerds. George and Harold try unsuccessfully to convince Principal Krupp to believe them, but when all else fails, it will be up to Principal Krupp's alter-ego, Captain Underpants, to save the day. But Captain Underpants is just a school Principal who's been hypnotized to believe he's a superhero. How can he possible stop an alien invasion?

With Incredibly Graphic Violence (in Flip-O-Rama!), that's how!

This is a fast-paced story with a lot of plot twists, along with Dav Pilkey's usual playing around with comic book cliches. It's got slapstick a-plenty for the younger readers, and a nice sprinkling of geeky references for the adults (Omni magazine gets namedropped!).

It also does a nice job of making a big change in the nature of the whole Captain Underpants series, introducing changes that will be of major consequence in the books that come after this one.

This felt like a nice leveling-up for this series.

Rating: 8/10