Author: Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
This one was definitely an oddity. I am not sure I followed the story at all in terms of really getting a good handle on what was going on, but there was something about the story - or perhaps more accurately, about the artwork - which kept my interest, which accounts for the 'oddity' portion of my assessment!
» Standard super-hero girl open crotch shot.... «
I found myself far more charmed by Rocket Girl's antics and acrobatics as depicted in the images than ever I did by the plot and the story. which is quite a new feeling for me! As I said, the story didn't make a heck of a lot of sense. It was told in a parallel universe kind of a way where things in 2013 in the story bore little relationship to things in 2013 in our time-line, but there was so much jumping around in the timeline that I got lost. I think this would make a better movie than a comic book, so hopefully the big screen is where it will go.
» I can't read those news headlines! How do the newscasters do it? «
"Rocket Girl" is actually a police officer in the NYTPD (the NYC teen police) which I found really a stretch to swallow. If there was any explanation given for why the NYPD has a teen police, I missed it. But whatever she was supposed to be, she was so irreverent when in the past that the police were trying to hunt her down. Probably handcuffing a couple of officers together wasn't a good idea after all?
» Rocket Girl goes head-to-head with the NYPD.... «
Rocket girl makes her mark though, and I found myself becoming more and more fascinated by her even as I got more and more lost in the plot (and that's lost not in a good way). Actually, one of the fascinating things was where the fuel came from to actually power the eponymous rockets. But I decided to let that one slide.
» I think Rocket Girl is about to take off! «
There was one charming scene where the locals (who by then had become really fond of her fight against police corruption) helped her out of her very distinctive outfit and squirreled her away in street clothes. It felt like a cross between Sue Storm hastily dropping her clothes and turning invisible to elude fans in the Fantastic Four movie, and Spider-Man being supported by the passengers on the El train he saved in Spider-Man 2 (original trilogy)!
In short, despite my confusion, I ended up really liking this graphic novel and I honestly can't give you a good reason why. Call it faith with a rocket! So I am actually looking forward to the next installment (and to greater enlightenment).
