Big Girls Vol. 1
Jason Howard, story & art
Image Comics, 2021
Jason Howard is mainly known as an artist, having collaborated on Trees with Warren Ellis and The Astounding Wolf-Man with Robert Kirkman. This is a dystopian story about a genetic experiment gone wrong: a formula intended to grow giant plants for food infects the human population, causing all of the newborn children to rapidly grow into giants. The male children start out normal, but quickly mutate into monsters called Jacks: violent and seemingly incapable of rational thought. The females just grow up to be 300 feet tall, the titular Big Girls.
Most of the normal humans live in an area called the Preserve, where they carefully watch for signs of new births to guard against any new Jacks. And the Big Girls guard against incursions by the Jacks, which means lots of big monster battles. But there is more going on: not only the history, but also current conflict between Joanna (the scientist who developed the genetics, and who everyone though was dead) and the High Marshall. Ember (one of the Big Girls) sees humanity in the Jacks. A couple of men become giants, and one of them may represent a way out.
On one level the story is a simple giant women versus monsters tale, and it works very well that way: lots of big graphic battles. But there are also some seeds planted for future stories, which promise to be more complex. Here's hoping.
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