Goliath Girls #1 Review

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Released as part of the ComiXology Unlimited program, Goliath Girls plays with the fun and seemingly always enjoyable kaiju realm from a Western perspective. Written by Sam Humphries, who has his hands on a lot of things over the last few years, with manga-inspired styled artwork from Miralti Firmansyah, Goliath Girls definitely comes across as tapping into some of the basic concept ideas of the kaiju characters from Japan and putting that Western spin on it. We’ve had a resurgence of those as of late and some work better than others. Kaiju material isn’t one of those things that I seek out but I figured a first issue was worth giving a try since I do enjoy kaiju stuff to some degree, though nowhere near as much as my daughter.

Taking place in a present-day kind of situation, this is a world like ours except the rise of the kaiju, or goliaths, occurred and a lot of chaos ensued with millions dead, lots of cities destroyed, and just immense damage. While the pushback came as “Generation Kaiju” came of age, there’s now just a few left that can handle this that are known as Goliath Girls. The problem is that as this group hasn’t had much going on for a bit the whole thing has kind of fallen apart. Juliet’s the primary one dealing with them and the arrival of what looks to be a king goliath that’s simply known as the sovereign that will destroy everything. The help she has to deal with this comes in the form of the smart girl Eunice and a bit of help from Zelda, who they send out with her mini pink goliath known as Mango to revive the Ginger Spice goliath known as Ginger Spice to help them in the fight.

The problem is that Ginger has come to the surface in berserk mode at the same time as the controlling satellite ends up being taken over and destroyed by Paul, a villain-type from their past who bought the control satellite for his own ambitions. The problem is that they need his help in trying to settle down Ginger while Eunice forces Juliet to call an ex of hers named Alexander that was kicked off the team who used to handle the satellite. The general craziness works nicely as the focus is on Ginger as Zelda tries to keep her away from a local village while the rest is on what Eunice is trying to get Juliet to do in order to save the day. It’s a very busy book int his regard and feels like what it looks like, a mix of east/west material where it leans harder on the east side for the artwork and design while the west is about the copious dialogue, forced humor, and somewhat misunderstood interpretation of Japanese humor styles.

In Summary:
Goliath Girls takes place amid other events going on prior to the series in order to give it a lived-in feeling rather than introducing us to this world through a new character. There’s a lot of familiar pieces here that I’m sure will be expanded into something more and something more unique as it goes on but right now it’s simply the familiar trappings. Sam Humphries captures the tone pretty well though it’s not entirely up my alley since it’s just too wordy and too familiar in its design. Miralti Firmansyah does a good job with the designs while Peer’s color artwork gives it some real life and vibrancy. But mostly, Goliath Girls just feels like something we’ve seen too many times before and without anything that lets it feel grounded and accessible at the moment. It’s a busy and packed starting point but it felt too overstuffed for me, making me want to skim instead of read the further I went on.

Grade: C

Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Shadow Valley via ComiXology
Release Date: July 18th, 2018
MSRP: $2.99

Chris Beveridge

http://www.fandompost.com

Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.

He likes to write a lot, as you can see.

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