Paper Girls Volume 1 (Image Comics)
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan | Artist: Cliff Chiang
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I had no idea what Paper Girls was, not even who wrote or drew it. I just saw the cover and thought that looks interesting. To my joyous surprise, I learned it was written by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y the Last Man, Lost) and illustrated by Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman, Tales of the Unexpected). I also had wondered what the title meant by “Paper Girls” and found it was so clear I should have figured it out: They are girls who deliver papers.
Paper Girls is a story set in 1988 and begins with its focus on Erin, a 12-year old paper girl going about her route in the pre-dawn darkness of November 1st. She runs into a trio of fellow paper girls who help her deal with some neighborhood bullies and things get…weird. Mysterious shrouded ninjas. A fleshy Cronenberg-esque device hidden in the basement of a home under construction. Pterodactyls. These are just some of the things our protagonists come across in the first arc of the series.
I hadn’t planned to read this right in the wake of finishing Netflix’s Stranger Things, but I’m very glad I did. It ended up being the perfect compliment and spotlighted a bit rougher edge to the 1980s. The girls in this series are a great balance between childhood badass posturing and vulnerability in the face of the unknown. It’s always grating if a series tries to present a tough girl or guy without layers and dimensions, but here we get to learn a lot about how each of these characters thinks as they put through some extreme and bizarre situations.
Vaughan is able to balance some pretty wild elements with grounded real life problems. While there are strange masked creatures wandering the neighborhood he takes the time to have a paper girl deal with her alcoholic step-mother. The visuals by Chiang are remarkable. He creates the sense of those early morning dawn hours so perfectly. And setting the story the morning after Halloween allows many characters to appear in costume and adds to the visual strangeness of the story.
The actual meat and potatoes plot of the first five issues is pretty crazy. I won’t go into a ton of detail but the series definitely goes places I wasn’t expecting. It was also refreshing to pick up a comic I had zero hype or real knowledge about and be delighted to find such a well-told story. Image Comics has become one of those companies that I am willing to do that more and more with. Their move to a home for stand alone creator-owned projects makes them a fertile soil for some of the best non-superhero comics work out there right now.
Much like Vaughan’s Saga, there is an immediate sense that this is the first chapter in a much larger and sprawling story. Tonally we’ll end up with something very different, more grounded but still with those more outlandish elements. If you are suffering from a lack of Stranger Things and wanting a wonderful companion piece, find this volume.
At first glance, the protagonist on the cover of Monstress doesn’t look very monstrous at all. Maika is a beautiful young woman without horns or scales or anything denoting a monster nature. That’s sort of the point in this exploration of prejudice and feminism brought to us by writer Marjorie Liu and artist Sana Takeda. The beautiful art deco style cover is immediately given a counterpoint in the first full page panel: Maika naked, a chain collar around her neck, a riding crop under her chin, and the revelation that her right arm from the elbow down is missing. On her chest is a tattoo of a vertical eye. This rather ugly reveal presents what will be the theme of the series, a beautiful ornate baroque world that is hiding a society built on violence against the Other.
The growth of Maika is the focus of the series. She starts single-minded and willing to let the innocent die if it means she gets closer to her goal of revenge. As she spends time with other characters she has a conflict with her inner nature and by the end of the first arc, she has learned the value of compromise. Her two companions, Kippa, an Arcanic with fox like attributes and Master Ren, a clever and witty cat, feel like paper thin characters. I was reminded of some forgotten animes that featured characters just for the cuteness appeal. There are hints at deeper levels and a rich history to the villains in The Cumea but it’s not explored very deeply in this first arc.
Two women marked by death attempting to understand the evil that lives in the shadows. This pretty much sums up the basic concept of Gail Simone’s first venture into Vertigo Comics territory. Chloe Pierce’s fiance killed himself and she miscarried their child. Now she wants to know what a Scientology-like cult run by Astrid Mueller. Astrid is a German woman who was brutally run down by a madman in a car when she was a child. After that experience she began to see what we might call “demons”. However, the series makes an effort to challenge our preconceptions about the nature of these monsters. In this first volume, we follow parallel stories of Astrid confronting a literal demon from her past while Chloe must decide if she trusts Astrid’s cult while attempting to figure out why her fiance killed himself.
The artwork is very uneven. Artist, Jon Davis-Hunt draws an awesome demon, and brings a lot of interesting variety to their designs. Elements of insects and sea life are interwoven into his monster work and this adds to a sense of the larger than our perception Lovecraft style of horror. However, his normal humans often look like mannequins. His figures are very posed and there is a lack of sense of movement through the panels. It improves as the series goes on, but still retains a stiffness. His linework is very smooth and detailed though.
Continuing threads laid in Batman: Rebirth, our story begins with Batman and Gordon meeting on the police station rooftop to discuss a raid on a nearby military base. The police have not located all the stolen weapons and fate would have it one of them is launched and strikes a commercial airliner over Gotham. The rest of the issues is tightly written action sequence that has Bats communicating with Alfred and his new partner, Duke Thomas (formerly of We…Are Robin). Alfred and Duke runs ops from the Batcave and guides Batman through the process of literally lassoing the plane and steering it around Gotham. The big twist is the final panel introduction of Gotham and Gotham Girl, apparent Superman and Supergirl analogs? The weakest part of this issues is some of David Finch’s art, I have never been a huge fan of his work. I definitely disliked his recent Wonder Woman run and really hated his Batman: The Dark Knight ongoing. There’s some stronger panel structure here and it does look like he is working well with Tom King. Probably the DC ongoing I am most excited to keep reading, mainly due in part to what a phenomenal writing of Tom King!
I felt like I was in familiar territory because this issue seems to tread the same notes most modern Aquaman stories always do: Hey, he’s a super serious hero, you guys! This need to make meta-commentary on jokes about Aquaman does more to diminish the character than just telling good stories about him. This comic also didn’t seem very open to new readership with some elements, like the Deluge, not being defined well or the reveal of the villain at the end feeling awkward. At the end, I felt like it was all set up for Aquaman to just fight one of his old villains again, but not the sense that something new was going to happen. Probably my least favorite of this week’s releases.
appears to be a focus on a team of Bat-related characters. Featured in the series will be Batman, Batwoman, Red Robin, Spoiler, Orphan, and Clayface. Clayface is the interesting outlier, a character shaped more by his appearances in the 90s animated series, than much of anything in the comics. His role in the team hasn’t been revealed yet but Tynion does a good job of making him sympathetic right from his first moment in the film. I used to truly hate the work of artist Eddy Barrows but he has made some significant improvements. Action feels fluid and energetic and the world is full of detail. There’s a slot of story potential for the interaction and relationships between these characters and this will be one I continue following.
It can be argued that DC Rebirth #1 was a Flash-centric story, with its lost Wally West at the heart of it all. The Flash Rebirth is an interesting artifact in that it takes place before, during, and after the events of DC Rebirth. Right away Williamson is making the title new reader friendly by using a contemporary murder scene to recap Barry Allen’s own loss of his mother. It would be easy to just make the comic a facsimile of the popular tv show but effort is put into referencing those important elements but keeping the comic its own. There are a couple beats that take us out of the story, the Barry/Wally reunion retold and Barry’s visit to Batman who happens to be analyzing that familiar smiley face pin. Artist di Giandomenico was someone I didn’t care for much on the recent X-Factor title for Marvel, but here his style lends itself to the spend and energy of the Flash. While not a singularly cohesive story, Flash Rebirth is a good introduction to the character.
Greg Rucka is bringing up the contradictions and fluctuations in this character’s past. Rucka’s past work on the title also dealt with finding a unique place for Princess Diana in a world of supermen. And he did a great job at it, playing up her role as a warrior and an ambassador to the world of men. Right away Rucka is saying we are going to examine this character again and redefine her. Another thing I loved was the use of multiple artists. Often new artists pop up in a jarring non-essential way, but here we switch to a new artist the moment Diana dons her new costume. If you really want a comic that is beckoning you in for a new story,but with recognition of the history that has come before, this is it. You also have a great pedigree with Greg Rucka at the helm. The ongoing series will be doing something a bit odd, alternating issues between the present day story and a Year One origin reboot. Definitely on my list to follow. Hands down the best release of the week.
Of the four titles, this felt the least like the beginning of something new, or the reintroduction of some element from DC Comics past. The story focuses on the Pre-New 52 Superman and Lana Lang unearthing the recently deceased Superman’s ashes. Lana made a promise that if he died before her, she would make sure his remains were with his adopted parents, The Kents, in Smallville. The two characters talk about old Superman’s experience with death and rebirth, and he’s pretty insistent this world’s Superman is going to be reborn eventually. It comes across a little meta-contextual about the silly nature of death and rebirth in comics. 
This was much more interesting and fresh than Superman: Rebirth. Tom King is able to reinvigorate some elements of the Batman mythos. The most stark change is to Calendar Man, a jokey gimmick whose crimes revolved around the seasons or holidays. Now Calendar Man is like Cronenberg body horror, his body shedding its entire skin seasonally. The best Batman villains are ones that unsettle us. With the whole Batman concept being so deeply embedded in human psychology, having horrors that poke around and disturb our minds is when the series shines. 
What this issue has going for it are two very underdeveloped characters. Simon Baz was introduced in 2012 but fell off into obscurity after a year. Jessica Cruz was introduced a year ago as Power Ring, the host to an otherworldly evil. In last week’s Justice League #50, she shook off her possession and was rewarded with Green Lantern ring. The two leads are used to emphasize the GLs as space cops, with a very reluctant and combative partnership.
Of the four Rebirth one-shots, this one felt like the best blend of a fresh style of writing while incorporating classic DC elements. The classic element is front in center in the form of a rekindling of the relationship between Green Arrow and Black Canary. There’s fun banter back and forth between these two and that makes the book. It’s also a done in one story, while the other Rebirth titles are just setting up their core titles. 
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