A little from column A, a little from column B.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ivan Cohen, Derek Fridolfs
Art: Agnes Garbowska, Sarah Leuver
Colorist: Silvana Brys
Letterer: Gabriela Downie
What They Say:
Bumblebee is tired of always being tiny! Karen sets her mind to creating a device that will make her big instead of small, but when things don’t go as she planned, the other girls will get a crash course in seeing the world through Bumblee’s eyes! Story
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With only a few of the DC Giants out there so far for each of the main books, there’s only so much to draw from. The DC Super Hero Girls goes on pause with this installment but it provides for a transitional bit for what Saturday’s will offer for a bit. This installment gives us a story from Derek Fridolfs and artwork by Agnes Garbowska at the start that’s definitely a lot of fun. It then shifts gears to a Teen Titans Go! story from Ivan Cohen with artwork by Sarah Leuver. This actually works in the books favor because my initial reaction was that I wasn’t going to pick up the Teen Titans Go! series when it launched but getting a little exposure here may change my mind.
The opening tale is certainly fun as it kicks off with Karen being very frustrated about her size as going up against various opponents often has her being outclassed in a lot of ways. Her friends are supportive and trying to get her to see the value she does bring but she’s looking to work her tech so she can make herself bigger as well as shrink. Of course, it goes awry and everyone else shrinks instead, leaving her to go figure out how to fix it. That lets the rest of the gang have fun getting caught in a breeze and thrown out into the school athletic field, which is going to be its own run of chaos. It’s the little bits of dialogue that work, the fact that they’re just a few inches tall overall, and that football practice is underway that makes it work. Of course, Karen’s not going to get everything right at the first try…
As much as I love the Teen Titans, the Go incarnation is one that just never clicked for me. I watched a bunch of it with my kids as they grew up and it appealed to them, which made it easier for them to get into Doom Patrol when they got older because they know the characters, so it’s definitely a potential gateway show. The story here is a simple one in that Jump City Weekly, the fourth-largest free weekly magazine in the city, had an open public popularity poll about the team and Beast Boy won. The rest came in tied for second but Robin came in at just 3% of the vote, dead last. And he knows there’s chicanery afoot. It’s just a lot of sound and fury, like the show, with a few amusing quips along the way that may make you smile. And a little fighting since the H.I.V.E. five show up briefly to play a role. But for the most part, it’s pretty simple and familiar stuff.
In Summary:
The DC Super Hero Girls stuff works a good story with plenty of humor but without a frantic feeling about its pacing and style of humor. You get more of that with the Teen Titans Go storyline and can contrast the two easily. I far prefer the first so it makes it easier with this brief venture to know that I’m not picking up those digital books when they release for the Titans. But I’m beyond glad that they exist because they are an easy and well-done escalator property that will bring new fans to other projects down the line that they may not even realize at first. With this book, the real win is the first story with a shrinking the team bit that just makes me smile in seeing how it unfolds. Hopefully, we’ll have more of this team in this form in the future.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology | Kindle
Release Date: May 23rd, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
