CREDIT: Action Lab/Danger Zone
Rating: 3/5 – This Could Develop Into a Very Cool Comic.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.
The cover to Tomboy #1 has the warning: “This book contains Violence, Blood, Murder, Madness, and Magical Girls.” all elements I enjoy seeing as building blocks for a story. Unfortunately we only get the full potential of this promise on the first 2 pages of the story before we time jump back and creator Mia Goodwin spends the rest of the issue setting up the story, building towards what we see on the first couple of pages, but not even reaching that point within this issue.
I really like Mia Goodwin’s manga-inspired art style and muted color palette, color is used to good effect in differentiating scenes, locations, and particularly nicely in a short flashback scene with Addison and her boyfriend. Story-wise, the the pacing was off for me, too much exposition and too little action with the key action sequence happening “off screen”, but that’s admittedly personal preference. One story element I though was flawed was Addison conveniently on the same subway car with two guys who are having a conversation about a crime 10 feet from her. These two are colossally stupid to be doing this, even if they think she has headphones on. I find it hard to believe they would say what they do in this public setting, and breaking my “belief barrier” took me out of the story.
This debut issue is loaded with story potential, but I didn’t feel like there was a solid payoff for any of it here. Reading this all at once in a collected edition would probably correct that for me. It’s hard for me to put a specific finger on it but I read a lot of comics and will often read a #1 that is loaded with setup, establishing characters, motives, and situations that don’t leave me feeling unfulfilled, but that is exactly how I felt reading this issue. Tomboy feels like a “wait for the trade” series for me.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
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