Comics have gone through a mild metamorphosis in the past half-year.  Whereas before the titles featuring young female heroes were considered to be the outliers, now they are the trend setters. Between Batgirl, Silk and Spider-Gwen, this new focus has changed how certain titles are marketed and changed the stories which are told.  If one looks to the trend a bit deeper, there are other common factors. Diversity is one, as is a more prominent role for social media, but so too is music. Music is notably absent from Silk, but it plays a role in the other two series. In Batgirl, Black Canary forms a band and is on the verge of going on the road heading into Convergence. In Spider-Gwen, Gwen absence from the band spells their doom.  With this focus on music it therefore makes sense that Jem and the Holograms has reappeared on the comics landscape.

Originally launched in the 1980s as a cartoon, the story undergoes a format change here as the characters are thrown into comics instead of animation. This first issue serves as both a reintroduction and as a reboot. The origin story of the characters and specifically Jem is told, but it is done so in a modern way. There is a lot more focus on the characters as real people and not as animated products to capture the eyes and minds of young fans. The story of Jerrica is told as she is shown to be headlining her own band with her beautiful voice, but that she cannot get past her stage fright.  As came before she finds an unlikely solution to this with the sci-fi creature Synergy who grants her an alter ego.

This issue does what it has to do to make things work. There are probably not a lot of fans of the original that are going to be reading this, but there would be some, and the story is not too much bogged down in the past to make it boring.  For the new readers, they are likely to find a lot of new and interesting characters to start to like, and there is really a little bit for everybody, not just the presumably all-female fan base that the television show was after. Jem is after all an alter ego (like a super-hero) and Synergy gives the series a sci-fi feel as well. This series uses enough of what is normal to the medium and gives it a new spin. There really is no other comic like this on the market, and it would be nice to see that this niche was supported as the series delivers on different levels.

Story: Kelly Thompson  Art: Sophie Campbell
Story: 8.4  Art: 8.4 Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy

IDW provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.