Ame-Comi Girls #1
Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Artist: Eduardo Francisco
DC Comics, $3.99, color, 30 pages
[Note: This book shipped March 6. Sorry this review is so late.]
I am utterly baffled by Ame-Comi Girls. The book, the phenomenon, everything. But I think I like it.
My best guess -- and after some research, it is still a guess -- "Ame-Comi" the term derives from female cosplayers who have favored DC characters done up manga style at conventions. I think that's the origin, but I'm not really sure.
Anyway, lots of cosplayers show up at conventions now in manga-style treatments of DC characters, and DC has been doing online-only comics launching from the look, and now DC is publishing those e-comics as a print comic book. One done by creators whose work I respect, so it's worth a look.
Palmiotti & Gray are the writers, and I have loved just about everything they've done. Not liked, loved -- these really are two of my favorite creators. And while I don't know much about Francisco, he's quickly becoming one of my favorite artists, because he not only draws purty, he's also a terrific designer -- his use of blacks, his positioning, his rendering, all show a perceptive mind behind the guy who draws purty. That's exactly the kind of artist whose work I love.
And now here are all of those people working on DC's female characters. Whoops! No, they're not!
They are working on DC characters, some of which are male, but ALL of which are female in the "Ame-Comi" world, and most of which diverge from their DC Entertainment counterparts in comfortable but important ways.
So, yeah, it's a gynocentric comic book, so it stars Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Catwoman, Power Girl, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Batgirl. But you also have Steel, Robin, Cyborg, Flash and the Joker as women. (In all fairness, the latter is Duela Dent, "Joker's daughter" in pre-New 52 continuity, and soon to be player in The New 52.) Anyway, everyone here is female, including the Big Bad, which is (a female) Brainiac.
And not all of these characters act as their counterparts, male or female, in "normal" DC Comics. Instead, they fill narrative pigeonholes as you'd expect.
Power Girl, for example, is essentially this world's Superman, so she is the prime superhero that all others look to for guidance and salvation. Wonder Woman is a hotheaded warrior who really likes to chop things up with her magic sword. Supergirl appears a bit dim. Joker is the Luthor of this world, trailing all the other villains in her wake. And so forth.
So it's DC Comics, and it's not DC Comics, and it's DC's superheroines, and it's not DC's superheroines. All of which adds up to a master's thesis for someone in gender studies.
But is it good?
And the answer to that is ... let's check back later. Ame-Comi Girls has talented creators doing something really odd, but they know their way around a story and will probably do well. But whether it's a story worth doing I can't say yet.
To be continued!
Replies