Alright, just finished reading Volume 1 of "Ame-Comi Girls". I picked it up at the book store when I saw it by chance. I had seen random panels and fan art of the Comi Girls on Deviant Art and various other websites and grew a little curious. Hadn't intended on going to look for it, it was more of one of the 'keep in the back pocket' kind of series.
Anyway, found it by chance and decided to give it a read.
Honestly, it took me a little while to get through. Three months actually. Started reading it when I got home, got distracted by the T.V. you know the drill. Picked it up a few weeks later but forgot what I read so had to start over. Before I knew it months had passed. Decided to bring it on a trip to my sisters graduate school SO finally sat down with nothing else to do and got through it.
So far I am not really impressed.
Personally, my favorite reads are the ones that are based on a female protagonist. Call me sexist but I would much rather watch a hot babe be awesome then a guy do his thing. But that's just me. So as I picked this up I was expecting to be ecstatic reading something that is 97% female and 3% male, unfortunately not so much.
I am a stickler for substance. If the writing is not 80% mystery 20% action I am usually not interested. So far this series seems to be (in a nut shell) the DC world, turned semi female, introducing characters really fast, trying to get them all together in a hurry so the artists can show what they look like in anime style. I love anime style, it's all I talked about in high school but art style shouldn't be the main point of a comic. My Comic Scripting professor always told us, "if the art is the best part of a comic, it wasn't a good comic." Not sure if I already quoted him in another review but who cares, it applies to this too.
I want soooooo bad to love this series but I don't : ( wish I did, but don't.
Alright so a few more things that bugged me;
The art and line work were inconsistent at times. Especially in small frame/panel areas. (if characters got smaller, line got sloppier)
It was difficult to grasp character identity if the characters were otherwise not introduced. (Meaning the relation between original DC characters and these female counterparts at times were unclear.)
Side annoyance, Introduction of Natasha aka Steel has a skin color error which bugged me a bit.
The story and the action was fun but a few times led to some confusing transitions. Whether it was a fight sequence with difficult to follow strikes, or a story line that opened to an unsure location or time frame, it required a little outside thought to regroup.
And forget it, if you are not familiar with the DC original characters you would be totally lost.
HOWEVER, it wasn't all negatives. I'm not going to thrash this story with the things I don't like then not mention a few things that I actually thought was fairly clever. For one, I must say Robin was my favorite. Usually I am a Catwoman girl but Robin was so beautifully drawn and so spunky that I have to say she stole the limelight for me.
Brainiac's recreation was immaculate (loved the aliens, sexy and dangerous. Gotta love it.)
Wonder Woman's facial expressions and reactions towards men was killer funny, I could really sympathize with her emotion being forced to wear an even MORE revealing outfit just to be given the chance to speak. Maybe 'sympathize' isn't the best word, but what I'm trying to say is her artist did a great job bringing that emotion to life. Felt very applicable.
In closing, I might consider reading another volume. Perhaps if something in the next one jumps out at me as a must read I will give it a go. But like I said earlier, this series is more of a 'keep in the back pocket.' kind of series. By all means though, check it out! You might like it and think maybe I am being too harsh, it's all in the eyes of the reader.
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