Girl Comics!

By Lisa Fary

After not going to the comic shop in about a month, I had a lot of girl stuff to catch up on: insane roommates, insane primates, and, of course, cancer.

Power Girl #3 and #4

When we left Power Girl in issue #2, she was hooked up to Ultra-Humanite’s machine thingy, ready to receive his downloaded brain. In #3, PG breaks out via freezing breath and, in short order, takes out Ultra-Humanite. But, there’s still the issue of Manhattan hanging suspended from Humanite’s ship, far above the Earth. With the help of Terra, Manhattan is saved and the villain is put away.

Issue #3 was all action, resolving the crisis and bringing a satisfying end this three issue arc. In the final pages, we get a glimpse of the next threat: a group of intergalactic party girls traveling in the most awesome spaceship since Barbarella.

But first, a bit of a one shot respite in issue #4. PG and Terra are out for girls’ night, starting with a horror movie, followed by intercepting a teenage cosplayer who gets her hands on a magic book and leads a small army of rampaging ogres through the city, determined to bring us all back to a communal existence with nature.

The next day, Karen Starr is updated on Starrware’s various projects: nanobots, grey goo,a portable star generator: and a dwindling cash flow. Starrware is developing great stuff, but there’s no one to make it profitable. Payroll is late, utility bills are skyrocketing, and Karen is living in her office. While she’s out looking at a Brooklyn apartment, something crashes out of the sky, presumably those party girls.

Issue 4 was quite a bit chattier than #3, but it was a nice change of pace. I loved the dynamic between Power Girl and Terra, the little character stuff that’s revealed in their interactions. Also seeing PG as Karen Starr, living her “normal” life and facing very real problems that she can’t punch, like finding a decent apartment.

I love this series so effing much!

Batgirl #1

I don’t keep up with the minutiae of the comic book universes. Complicated, convoluted storylines are enjoyable, but this gets too much like following Days of Our Lives. It’s tedious.

It’s also why I didn’t enjoy Batgirl as much as I wanted to.

I really was going along OK for the first several pages, until Batgirl revealed her identity: Stephanie Brown.

Ummmm.  The girl who used to be Robin? The girl who was tortured to death with a drill? The girl whose lack of a memorial case in the Batcave inspired Project Girl Wonder? So. . . she’s not dead? And now she’s Batgirl?

I didn’t want to stop and look it up, so I kept reading. And it was OK. But, there was obviously a lot that I was missing, like why Cassandra Cain walked away or what had gone on with the girl from Teen Titans.

I’ll have do some research to get up to speed before issue #2, which will hopefully make it more enjoyable. But, I’m annoyed that I have to do that at all.

Gotham City Sirens #3

I wish Guillem March could consistently draw tits and ass.

It’s not that I mind prominent tits and ass on my comic heroines, villainesses, and innocent bystanders. That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is when they’re not drawn well and women end up with funky boobs.

Or, inexplicably, with costumes that somehow manage to go all the way up the butt crack. For the few panels she was around, I was really distracted by the mechanics of Catwoman’s costume. How, exactly, was it able to go up her butt like that? It wasn’t your standard wedgie – that look different, more bunchy.

And then the way all the women in this issue moved as if being led by their boobs. I know they stick out, but come on. We don’t usually walk around with shoulders back, boobs way out, and spine arched to present back-giny to the world. It’s like March is using American Apparel ads as reference.

Love the cover on this issue, though – it reminds me of an old 007 movie poster or the cover of a trashy pulp novel.

Even though it’s Gotham City Sirens, issue #3 is about The Riddler and the Batman. Ed Nigma has turned away from villainy and is trying to make it as a private investigator. They work together on a serial killer case and Nigma bags a goth bookstore girl. That’s all that happens. Looks like it’ll get back to the fate of Harley Quinn next time.

Even with the badly drawn girls, Gotham City Sirens #3 was still superior to. . .

Marvel Divas #2

Cancer.

Cancer.

And in case you forgot, cancer.

Female bonding through shopping.

Mastectomy.

Why am I doing this to myself?

Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s almost 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.

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