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Review: Danger Girl Renegade #1

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dgr001Danger Girl is to most a misunderstood comic book franchise.  Many judge the book by its cover and dispel it before reading a single panel and give it the same criticism that many other female led comics get -it is labeled as silly or exploitative and never really given a chance.  It is true that it is silly, but it is designed as a parody of the spy franchise and any parody has to contain some level of humor.  What is not understood is the exploitation, which is evidently there but not to the degree that most assume.  The female characters are sometimes treated as caricatures of female characters in espionage films, but the male characters are actually far more over-the-top.  Johnny Barracuda could be easily considered to be more offensive to male readers than Sydney or Abbey could be to female ones.  Furthermore, while the Danger Girls are drawn in revealing clothing, it should also be noted that their costumes are actually far less revealing than most comic book superheroines.  The entire franchise could then be said to be one which is somewhat misunderstood and underappreciated.

Because of that the series has never really caught on, although it does have its fans.  There have been a few ongoing plot elements that have never really been explored, but chief among those is Abbey’s background.  As is evident in this first issue, it is not as though Abbey is an amnesiac and cannot remember anything from her younger years, rather it is just that she does not understand what the events of those early years signify.  There have been other developments that have been hinted at in previous series, but there have never really been any answers.

There are no real answers here either, but they are ready to be explored, or so it would seem.  The setup to revealing Abbey’s past is handled well here as there are no immediate revelations, but rather true to the life of a spy, her secrets have secrets, and the introduction to her past in this issue is thus handled well, giving a glimpse, albeit a short one, into her past and how she is tied to the others.  The only drawback one could identify from this series is that the other members of the Danger Girl team are missing, though that doesn’t seem to be something that will continue through the series.  At the moment this is a fun introduction to a question that fans of the series have always had and it will be interesting to see what the creators have in store for the remainder of the series.

Story: Andy Hartnell Art: Stephen Molnar
Story: 8.4 Art: 8.4 Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy

IDW provided Graphic Policy with a free copy for review.

Review: Danger Girl: Mayday #4

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aa - mayOver the course of its publication history, Danger Girl has been a fun if not always too serious take on the espionage genre.  It was originally conceived as a parody of James Bond, and built itself on the concept that it would put the Bond Girls in the spotlight, only that instead of passive doe-eyed victims that they would be lively doe-eyed spark plugs.  The team of three has faced off against a variety of threats, but laying in the background for all of them has been H.A.M.M.E.R., the shadowy group inspired by cartoonish Nazis.  In the very first story of the team, Abbey Chase was recruited to the team as they were led into the hands of H.A.M.M.E.R.  Soon after they were betrayed by one of their own as knife-wielding Russian assassin Natalia was revealed to be a sleeper agent for this nefarious group, and her double cross almost resulted in the deaths of the other two team members.  Natalia was ultimately defeated and seemingly killed and the team went on saving the world.

In the course of its travels though, both H.A.M.M.E.R. and Natalia have shown up repeatedly, though this is the first series which focuses specifically on Natalia’s return.  In so doing, the series has also focused primarily on Abbey as well, much as it always has.  Abbey was the one that had supposedly killed Natalia and was the one for whom revenge was promised at some point.  Over the course of this miniseries, this confrontation has been played to, and in terms of this resolution here, it is maybe what the reader would be expecting and maybe not, but it is still handled well enough.

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Alternate Cover

In terms of the actual series though, this maybe ends up taking itself too seriously.  It was built on being a little bit serious, but also lampooning the genre as well which makes women into so much of eye candy.   While the Danger Girls are comic book women, the series is equal in its treatment of the male characters, with overly masculine Deuce that is the rip-off of Sean Connery, overly lascivious Johnny Barracuda who is the rip-off of Bond, and overly violent Agent X who is a rip-off of every other mad killing machine from the movies.  That is to say, that a big part of the dynamic in this series is the almost goofy nature of the interaction of all of the characters and as this series lacks most of them that it ends up being a part of what it could be.  Even Sydney is all but absent as this focuses mostly on Natalia and Abbey.

The end result is pleasing but still a bit of a letdown.  So much of this series relies not on the storytelling but on the characters.  The settings and the plots are absurd, but it is the characters that flesh them out and give them life.  This element was missing for this whole series, instead relying on some more traditional espionage elements that one might expect from a 1960s television.  Fans of the group probably won’t be disappointed, but they will probably not praise this either, except maybe as the setting for more that is to come.

Story: Andy Hartnell Art: John Royle
Story: 7.6 Art: 8.2 Overall: 7.6 Recommendation: Read