Through the eyes of the girls.
Creative Staff:
Story: Shea Fontana
Art: Marcelo DiChiara, Agnes Garbowska
Colors: Silvana Brys
Letterer: Janice Chiang
What They Say:
With deadlines looming, some of the students of Super Hero High decide to stay up and finish their comic book projects for Miss Moone’s art class. Can the girls help each other finish in time?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After checking out another free installment that came out as part of Halloween, I had forgotten that I picked up the free sample from the Batman Day event for this property that’s part of the Out Of The Bottle graphic novel that’s also being released as digital singles. Having enjoyed what I saw before it was a no-brainer to check out more of what Shea Fontana was doing with this property and getting a look at Marcelo DiChiara’s style after seeing their work in Bombshells: United recently as well. It’s definitely a great fit for this series as they capture the look and intent of this style really well and made it work even more so with the variety we get thanks to the story.
The premise is simple enough in that we’ve got the girls at school where they’re working late on a project and Mrs. (June) Moone is wanting to get home but they’re very intent on finishing their art project. While that has her going off to have some cafeteria food instead of a real dinner, the girls dig into their individual comics art projects. There’s some cuteness to the way they interact in this regard because Diana’s just worried about failing as she doesn’t like hers at all and seeing everyone else doing so well and being so creative just reinforces that kind of unhappiness with her. The rest are all very positive toward her, though Harley is more positive about herself more than anything else, but it plays well to having the girls work together and encourage each other rather than tearing the other down.
What makes the book work even more is that of the stories that we get there’s a whole lot to like. The book ends with the first piece of Harley’s artwork that makes me think of Shade: The Changing Man but the first part gives us an extended look at Katana’s story of being the hero in going up against the Mad Hatter as the rest of her friends are easily taken out by his hat. It’s adorable as are the complaints she gets about things that don’t make sense as is the way she comes up with workarounds. Kara’s story is my favorite though as it’s right out of something on Cartoon Network that’s all bright and colorful and fun with unicorns and more. It’s got a mild bit of seriousness to it but it’s just a whole lot of fluffy awesomeness.
In Summary:
I love the DC Super Hero Girls line and I’m thrilled that DC Comics is promoting it as well as they are through the various events and things like Free Comic Book Day. Projects like these have to have a bit of a loss leader of sorts to get into the right hands and build the long term dividends of fostering new fans that will enjoy the books, the animated material that’s produced, as well as the toys and the clothes. But it also needs to have fun stories and good artwork and this release as part of the Out of the Bottle series is definitely that as it brings the characters out in a great way with fun artwork and good characterization. It’s definitely a great way to enjoy something without having to dig deep into continuity but also just to smile, laugh, and grin like a fool with what they do.
Grade: B
Age Rating: All Ages
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 23rd, 2017
MSRP: Free
