Tag Archives: main character

Review: Princess Leia #5

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pl05Going into this series, even the creative team must have known that Princess Leia would be a hard sell.  She is a beloved character by most fans of Star Wars, but also in very few fan’s lists of favorite characters.  Instead the relatively dour character is one that has fulfilled the role as the main heroine in a functional way, but not in a way that most people would ever really consider to be fun.  Her role of main character has still often mostly been that of sidekick, and so a series about her own adventures might have seemed a bit out of place.  That she was given a chance to shine on her own is a risk which has paid off for Marvel, the more so that these stories are considered to be official canon of the Star Wars universe.

As the previous issue left off, Leia has promised to group together all Alderaanians who have survived the destruction of their home planet, and this has taken Leia to the extreme of exchanging herself for the traitor in their midst,  Tula, the former agent for the Imperials.  While the reader will know than Star Wars canon set between episodes IV and V featuring Leia means that the character has to live, her fate still feels very much in the danger as she steps into the hands of the Imperial officers, eager to rush her off to the fate which they think that she deserves.  Things do not exactly transpire like this, but the end result is that Leia is able to somewhat fulfill her goal, even to a degree which she had not thought possible, moving beyond prejudice to find a commonality for all.

Though it has been less talked about than the main Star Wars series, this series likely should have been.  It got off to a slow start, but it picked up steam quite quickly, and the entire five issues story reads better together than monthly.  With this final issue, it would also be nice to see the return of Evaan, the rare female character in the universe that is written like what most modern comic readers expect from a female character.  With this fifth and final issue, Leia proved two things as a character, first of all that she can carry a series, and secondly that she should probably given the opportunity to carry one or two more.

Story: Mark Waid Art: Terry Dodson
Story: 9.5 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy

Review: Spider-Woman #5

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spiderwoman005covIn the history of new title launches for superheroes at the big two comic publishers, there might not have been as strange of a debut as Spider-Woman underwent to get to what is the now fifth issue of the series.  Before the series was even debuted it underwent a massive amount of well-deserved criticism for the depiction of its main character on one of its variant covers.  For those fans that were not deterred by this they picked up the first issue and found the character somewhat confusingly dropped into the middle of the Spider-Verse crossover.  After five issues, the character is once again rebooted, this time getting her own “Batgirl” treatment, in league with other female characters at the big two that are getting younger, more confident and more up-to-date.

The story follows Jessica Drew as she has thrown off her larger commitments in the superhero community to focus on her life as a “normal” superhero, more focused on the streets than on the skies.  Some parts of this don’t work, for instance as she is depicted as a bit of rookie in her efforts despite her long career, but on the whole the grassroots approach to the character works.  When she is teamed up with Ben Urich, the story starts to kick into a higher gear, as both the reader and the main character realize the importance of heeding Ben’s journalistic instincts.

What is evident about this issue is that the creative team has the potential to pull this together, and only begs the question why they were not allowed to do that in the first place before all the controversy and all the misdirection (in which case Batgirling would be replaced by Spiderwomaning?)  Regardless while this series and this story still has some ground to make up, and despite that some of the previous four issues read well as individual issues, this #5 feels like a #1 and perhaps there is hope yet for Jessica to get some of the attention that is deserved.

Story: Dennis Hopeless Art: Javier Rodriguez
Story: 8.3 Art: 8.3 Overall: 8.3 Recommendation: Read

Review: Purgatori #5

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Purgatori05-Cov-A-RuffinoThus far this series has had its share of ups and downs, despite being only four issues into the series.  At times there has been little to distinguish this series from any number of other low production supernatural horrors on the comic shelves, as the main character has been a bit flat in her presentation, and her settings have been a bit too generic to really care that much about what will happen to her.  As much can be said about this series at least until this issue, as finally the character seems to be getting a more focus on who she is as opposed to what was before.

The story follows Purgatori as she has returned to the underworld, keen on revenge, but also still not fully whole in her own self, still lacking her powers.  While previous issue have attempted to establish some tension or supposition that things will not work out for her, this issue throws that aside and finally gives her a chance to cut loose.  This issue is far more about action than it is about character development, but strangely more of the character comes out in this way.  After she finishes with her enemies, the anti-hero comes out in how she treats them afterwards.

This comic is by no means a masterpiece, by at the very least it has finally captured something about the character which has been missing thus far.  An attempt to build an Indiana Jones style arcane story for her return to Hell was met with a lot of false starts, but once she got back on home turf she finally made a stand, both in the story and out.  If the writers can continue to capture the same gritty and sassy nature of the character, there might be a chance to make this work as an ongoing, but so far their record is about one out of five issues for having done so, so while this might leave the character pointing in the right direction, it took a long and twisted route to get there.

Story: Aaron Gillespie Art: Javier Garcia-Miranda
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

Dynamite provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.