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A review by lanikei
Girl Comics by Adriana Melo, Ming Doyle, Stephanie Buscema, Sho Murase, Kathleen Marinaccio, Kathryn Immonen, Emma Ríos, Jill Thompson, June Brigman, Rachelle Rosenberg, Lucy Knisley, Molly Crabapple, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Kristyn Ferretti, Rebecca Buchman, Devin Grayson, Colleen Coover, Marjorie Liu, Trina Robbins, G. Willow Wilson, Abby Denson, Mariah Benes, Nikki Cook, Carla Speed McNeil, Jo Chen, Robin Furth, Cynthia Martin, Ronda Pattison, Lauren Sankovitch, Laura Martin, Christine Boylan, Emily Warren, Amanda Conner, Star St. Germain, Stephanie Hans, Cris Peter, Valerie D’Orazio, Ramona Fradon, June Chung, Barbara Ciardo, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Sara Pichelli, Sana Takeda, Colleen Doran, Lea Hernandez Seidman, Louise Simonson, Agnes Garbowska, Emma Vieceli, Jeanine Schaefer, Ann Nocenti, Faith Erin Hicks
3.0
I'm glad I got this for cheap, and for the $7 for a hardcover, I'll consider it a good deal. But I would have been pretty annoyed if I'd paid the usual $20 for a trade.
Given the price, this was an impulse buy, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm trying to find super hero comics that I can get into, and the cover of this one made me smile. It turns out this isn't exactly what I expected - I had thought it was something of an ensemble super hero comic not a group of short stories created by women.
I do like the variety provided in the book. There are super hero action comics, a few more indie style comics, some particularly... kiddy comics I guess?, some cheesecake pictures of supers, and a few little biographical sketches of women involved with Marvel over the years. It's quite an anthology.
Unfortunately a lot of the works just seem REALLY girly and token-y. It's awesome to learn about 'the only woman inker' and 'the only woman writer' and 'the particularly accomplished secretary'. But that's also frustrating after each successively more recent creator is still 'the only woman doing X'. I do still appreciate the nods to history though and I think it IS important to acknowledge the creations of women in the field that have probably gone un-noticed.
The stories are often very short and some rely on you knowing the characters and their backstories better than I did. I felt like there were inside jokes that I just didn't catch. That's fine, but I also think that this is an anthology trying to reach out to women who may not get it. I'm not saying that all women need a Marvel Comics 101, but I think I do.
Mostly I was annoyed by how... non-comicky a lot of the stories felt. Much of the art was much brighter and cartoony than I associate with super hero comics, and some of the stories were just embarrassingly 'this is what girls do'. Where was the action and heroics? I think that women do like a little more 'day to day life' in their stories, but I felt like this was a little heavy on the hairdressers, grocery shopping stuff.
There were a few stories that I particularly liked. Jubilee and Wolverine had a cute father/daughter talk, and the Power Pack story was fun - I'd never heard of them but it was light-hearted kid stuff that I enjoyed as sort of super-hero-Bobbsey-Twins. The last story with Kitty Pryde turning 21 was more of what I had expected from the book - a huge ensemble cast of Marvel characters, but with a focus on the women instead of the headlining males. Except the girl ends up puking her guts out and hanging in the Ladies with all the girls putting on makeup while the guys have an epic drinking contest. >_<
I'm glad to see female artists highlighted, it's important. And I want to see more women interested in comics, working in comics, and creating superhero comics so that I will want to read them. And I appreciate that Marvel is acknowledging that need and giving these artists an opportunity to showcase their work. But I felt like there was some overkill and too much of a focus on 'stuff we think girls would like'.
Given the price, this was an impulse buy, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm trying to find super hero comics that I can get into, and the cover of this one made me smile. It turns out this isn't exactly what I expected - I had thought it was something of an ensemble super hero comic not a group of short stories created by women.
I do like the variety provided in the book. There are super hero action comics, a few more indie style comics, some particularly... kiddy comics I guess?, some cheesecake pictures of supers, and a few little biographical sketches of women involved with Marvel over the years. It's quite an anthology.
Unfortunately a lot of the works just seem REALLY girly and token-y. It's awesome to learn about 'the only woman inker' and 'the only woman writer' and 'the particularly accomplished secretary'. But that's also frustrating after each successively more recent creator is still 'the only woman doing X'. I do still appreciate the nods to history though and I think it IS important to acknowledge the creations of women in the field that have probably gone un-noticed.
The stories are often very short and some rely on you knowing the characters and their backstories better than I did. I felt like there were inside jokes that I just didn't catch. That's fine, but I also think that this is an anthology trying to reach out to women who may not get it. I'm not saying that all women need a Marvel Comics 101, but I think I do.
Mostly I was annoyed by how... non-comicky a lot of the stories felt. Much of the art was much brighter and cartoony than I associate with super hero comics, and some of the stories were just embarrassingly 'this is what girls do'. Where was the action and heroics? I think that women do like a little more 'day to day life' in their stories, but I felt like this was a little heavy on the hairdressers, grocery shopping stuff.
There were a few stories that I particularly liked. Jubilee and Wolverine had a cute father/daughter talk, and the Power Pack story was fun - I'd never heard of them but it was light-hearted kid stuff that I enjoyed as sort of super-hero-Bobbsey-Twins. The last story with Kitty Pryde turning 21 was more of what I had expected from the book - a huge ensemble cast of Marvel characters, but with a focus on the women instead of the headlining males. Except the girl ends up puking her guts out and hanging in the Ladies with all the girls putting on makeup while the guys have an epic drinking contest. >_<
I'm glad to see female artists highlighted, it's important. And I want to see more women interested in comics, working in comics, and creating superhero comics so that I will want to read them. And I appreciate that Marvel is acknowledging that need and giving these artists an opportunity to showcase their work. But I felt like there was some overkill and too much of a focus on 'stuff we think girls would like'.