Now to preface this I must admit to knowing far more about Dejah Thoris than I do Barbarella having been an avid reader of Edgar Rice Burroughs and my sole exposure to Barbarella being the Jane Fonda movie. I don’t quite trust that the movie is a fair representation of Barbarella after reading this. I must make time to read the original comic series so I hope to be objective as possible when my knowledge is heavily skewed to one character.
With that admission out-of-the-way we find Barbarella and Dejah at the bottom of an alien ocean within the scant safety of a house sized bubble while a score of giant predatory fish are trying to find a way to get at the tasty morsels within. Immediately this story puts Dejah at a huge disadvantage by taking someone from what is essentially a desert planet and dropping them in the ocean. The warrior princess is truly out of her element and reacts with sheer dread while Barbarella exhibits an impossible level of calm. Despite her years of adventures poor Dejah is rattled to the bone and sadly mostly stays that way for a great deal of the story, finding comfort only in violence and anger as a means of coping with her situation. Meanwhile it appears that Barbarella is cut from the same cloth as Dr Who. She remains clam and collected, is extremely observant, knowledgeable and experienced with the bizarre and expresses a dry wit which even her companions can fall victim to. This story becomes a bit of an Odd Couple in space sort of scenario and while it works I honestly hate seeing Dejah reduced to being nearly useless for the entire issue. However by the end of the issue she is given a cause to fight for that apparently only she can fully accomplish and I expect she will rally and become the Dejah I know and love once again next issue.
Barbarella on the other hand is quite a quirky character and once again I can’t help but see reflections of the Doctor in the way she handles life and death situations. She has an uncanny knack to figure out things, often just in time and often does so with an inhuman level of poise and level of empathy and understanding that would make a Canadian look like an absolute lout by comparison.
ART
The cover for this book is simple gorgeous (my cover being the cover A of the five possible covers to choose from). The ladies look sexy and poised and are stunningly rendered by Laura Braga.
Unfortunately the interior is not as good. It’s not bad mind you, it’s just kinda ok. Garcia doesn’t lack imagination and the gals look like two beautiful women with clearly differing body types as Barbarella is slender and Dejah shapely. A lot of the art style is very sketchy though which makes its look a bit sloppy or rushed. I don’t know if that typical for this artist or not. Additionally Dejah’s sword keeps disappearing off her back when it’s supposed to be sheathed there. And there is a splash page that is an enormous missed opportunity by both the artist and colorist as Barbarella describes the scene before her as being an awe-inspiring spectacle. I wish I could have seen it they way she does. But on the plus side Garcia excels at depicting expressions. The thoughts and emotions of the characters are easily read and reflection via their faces. It’s an aspect of comics that too many artists don’t get right and I’m glad to see it done right here.
The colors fit the art, meaning that they are just sorta ok. Perhaps that’s the point though. The coloring style is VERY retro and not having read Barbarella I can’t say for certain if the idea was to recapture the original style of those older comics.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While this is the story of two heroines this issue is a Barbarella story for sure. 3.5 out of 5!
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
REVIEW: BARBARELLA DEJAH THORIS 2
Writer: Leah Williams
Art: Germain Garcia
Colors: Addison Duke
Cover: Laura Braga
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