Barbarella is most definitely fine.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Kenan Yarar
Colors: Mohan
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
Our spacefaring heroine may have been enlisted by Earth’s underground, but that doesn’t mean she trusts her new allies. On the run in an alien city, hunting for a doomsday device that might end a war, Barbarella has to choose a side and stick to it. But it might not be the one you expect…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Getting into the Barbarella series at the start was interesting as I knew I had to divest myself of my only connection with the feature film, as much as I love it. Mike Carey put together an interesting opening storyline with a war between Earth and Parosia, a place of contradictions made clearer here that’s a reflection of our own, and introduced some fun characters. I also really got into Kenan Yarar’s artwork while hoping that he’ll get the chance to really go big and crazy with it along the way as there’s a whole galaxy to explore out there and not just having humanoids to deal with. Though some aspects of the opening arc are certainly familiar it was really well executed and left me enjoying it a good bit while looking forward to more.
And thankfully, the second issue delivers. The book shifts views a bit as time goes on but I enjoyed the way it opened with Barbarella and Quite plummeting to their deaths and the way Quire observes it all and realizes just what kind of person Barbella is with how she reacts and handles it, saving the day in the end. This issue largely has them on the run from start to finish and that gives it a good bit of energy after escaping from the prison and working together. There’s definitely some mutual respect here combined with Barbarella’s intent on getting her vagina back after having it removed previously. With Quire having more experience on this world and trying to connect with another cell after her own was killed off it makes sense for Barbarella to lean on her in this regard. It also allows her to take in more of what she sees with all of its contradictions amid this war.
With a war going on in space and the religious elite in control, the city and populace in general is looking like they’re from an agrarian society that’s struggling and that’s hard for her to reconcile. It gets worse as she hits up different areas and interacts with more people to understand what they’re like and you can see the chills it sends down her spine. It’s even worse, however, when she and Quire connect with the other cell – or what’s left of it – and they realize what Quire was really transporting unknowingly and how it goes against everything that Barbella believes in as how Earth should represent itself. There’s that sense of “do this, end the war” from Pendrum, the surviving member of this other cell, and running that alongside exploring how a droid became a spy is certainly intriguing in how it’s presented.
In Summary:
Kenan Yarar has a pretty good issue here where he gets to stretch a bit more with things, such as the droid and the chase across the converted spaceport. I also really liked the opening action sequence with how that played out as it all felt very cinematic. Carey’s story isn’t trying to be subtle with what he’s doing here but that’s also realistic in that societies that lean heavy and hard in any particular direction will come across as an extreme. There’s a lot of fun to be had here and Carey conveys a lot of material and character motivation along the way, though I wish we still had a bit more about the big picture of what this galaxy is like and what Barbarella inhabits in order to get a better picture of it all.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: January 10th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
