A magical start for Zodiac Starforce.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kevin Panetta
Art: Paulina Ganucheau
What They Say:
An elite group of teenage girls with magical powers have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures . . . as long as they can get out of class!
These high-school girls aren’t just combating math tests. They’re also battling monsters! But when an evil force infects leader Emma, she must work with her team to save herself—and the world—from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Team heroes always fight to save the day and conquer the evil forces from taking over the world. However, what happens when the monsters stop coming, the evil forces defeated, and the heroes prosper? That’s where Kevin Panetta and Paulina Ganucheau’s Zodiac Starforce drops us. Two years after the final battle, Emma is quite comfortable with the normal life studying hard in school. However, monsters start popping up and friends start disappearing, can Emma and the rest of the Starforce find out what is going on and put a stop to it?
It feels earnest in showing a post-world saving, time for heroes giving indications of people moving on and leading the eff. While we see these things with Power Rangers and the occasional cape comic, rarely do we have these inklings elsewhere. Starforce takes it to a logical conclusion and humanizes the feelings. Not everyone become enamored about fighting the good fight after winning. True, helping people and defending the universe is great, but not at the cost of lives lost and emotional rollercoaster that you endure. Emma takes on this concept and shows proper resistance to reunite the Starforces.
The polar opposite is Kim’s take. Longing for the days past, she wants the Starforce team back. Conquering bad guys and having a core group of friends, truly helping out is something she’s dedicated to. So when weird events crop up, she immediately jumps in. That style of optimism can get annoying and yet Panetta balances it by having Kim cognitive of her actions, making her reservedly optimistic rather than totally outgoing (although sometimes it leans into outgoing for the sake of the plot).
To describe the coloring as muted pastel would get the point across and yet do a disservice. The coloring that Savanna Ganucheau performs for this issue makes the colors pop and vibrant. It shows multiple tones pending on mood and location and makes the book cohesive and dynamic. The character and art design will satisfy most. There’re a lot of detail that goes into conveying the layout and Paulina Ganucheau does well to make the action scenes conveys the aggressiveness of the battles and the pains of the fight. While character style may not appease everyone it will draw a vast amount of people from all ends of the graphic novel spectrum.
In Summary:
Overall, it’s looking like a strong start for Zodiac Starforce. Panetta and Ganucheau have done will to create an interesting story with the art and the direction to match. There are some quibbles that might not make it the best but they are mostly minor. The vast majority of readers, however, won’t be caring about said quibbles but instead will care about when the next issue comes out. Graphic novel fans from all areas (comics, manga, etc.) should pick up accessible magical girl series.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date:August 26th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
