Cliff Chiang

{First of 6 volumes Paper Girls series 1-5; graphic novel, YA, sci-fi, mystery} (2016)

I've seen this recommended around LT and I considered getting it for my kids, who enjoyed watching Stranger Things but unfortunately, volumes 1 and 3 are not available from my bookshop. I managed to find it on Overdrive but for some reason it had to download on my browser rather than on the app (maybe because it's a GN?). This made it a bit awkward to read, especially as I kept having to reload/ refresh the show more browser quite a few times.

That aside, it is an intriguing story and at 1/6th of the way through, I would like to see how it plays out.

I'm going to have to get hold of a hard copy and re-read this properly but I'm planning on continuing with the remaining five volumes of this series. I like the way the artists have mixed ethnicities and social classes without making a song and dance about it. (In this year of high sensitivity I couldn't miss that.)

3.5 stars

Okay - I managed to download the GN to my desktop where I didn't have to constantly refresh the screen and I had it on the larger screen which made for a more cohesive experience - and maybe reading it the second time through helped me understand the story a bit better.

The story begins in the early morning after Hallowe'en 1988 (the year of the Bush/ Dukakis election) in Stony Creek, Ohio with a twelve year old girl getting up very early in the morning to do her paper round on her bicycle for the Cleveland Preserver. As she does her rounds, she is accosted by a group of older teenage boys but then rescued by three other paper girls - Mac, Tiffany and KJ - so she asks to join them. And then things get weird as they are attacked by beings. Whether these are aliens, people from the future or people from a parallel dimension we have yet to find out ...

We start off with the main protagonist, Erin, in heaven having to save her younger sister from hell but we quickly realise she is dreaming. At a later point she has a delirium dream (compered by Ronal Reagan); I'm not sure if her dreams tie into the story somehow but there is a constant theme of an apple.

Intense. Intriguing. I want to know what happens next - actually, I want to know what just happened.

I'm upping my rating to 5 stars ***** show less

I have read these fantastic New 52 Wonder Woman books out of order, but they are no worse for that. What a splendid idea to link Wonder Woman's story to the magnificently dysfunctional pettiness of the Greek Gods! In this edition, Wonder Woman faces conflict, spite and betrayal from various of these beings as she strives to protect the unborn child of Zola, the last and latest mortal woman to be impregnated by mighty Zeus. Hades wants to marry her. Apollo and Artemis want to destroy her. But show more Wonder Woman is a child of Zeus too -- and she holds her own. Azarello and Chiang tap into the rich stories of the Greek myths, and mix in their own with great style. Oh yes, and having already read War in this series, I love it that Hades gives an intimation of what is to come in that book. show less

Stranger Things made a bigger cultural splash, though this began to come out at roughly the same time. Set in 1988 with a young cast and bizarre goings-on, the comparison seems natural enough. Erin starts her first morning delivering papers in her quiet suburban community, and hooks up with three other paper-girls. Before long things start to get seriously weird, with strange figures stealing their walkie-talkies, lights in the sky, something really strange in a basement, and then, and show more then... things get wilder and weirder until things are completely bat-lizard boo-yaa gosh wow what the hell was that? No slow build-up King pastiche, this is zero to holy moses in two issues flat.

Writing by Vaughan is clever and sharp, the usual strong characterisations and cliffhangers and plot-twists and reversals. The art by Cliff Chiang is drop-dead gorgeous, lovely colouring too. A great cast of characters helps, as does never knowing what the heck is going to happen next. show less

I really got suckered in by the first issue and it fell apart pretty much from the beginning of the second.

I feel I monkey's pawed myself enjoying the dark, mythic, brutality of the first issue, the grim summoning of the centaur was pretty awesome, but the interesting quickly became edgelord with shades of how Snyder made Superman grim and gritty, but nothing else, and men writing women.

The narrative is...fine. The dialogue is OK to painful. The art has its moments, but is really dull, show more particularly with facial expressions, particularly Diana's for some reason. We also need to talk about nu-metal by way of Ali G Hermes...WTActualF?! Admittedly, Hermes' feet and the designs of Hades and Poseidon looked great. No notes.

Wonder Woman is a fascinating character with a rich backstory and mythology to draw upon. She occupies an interesting space in the Trinity, between Superman's wholesome light and Batmans grim darkness. All of this, not to mention her connections to the World Wars, have such wonderful potential for mixing the dark and light, the mythical gods with grounded human problems. She is the eternal fish out of a clay amphora in any sphere of her life. Her narrative potential is endless! But she was done dirty here on what seems like a cheap and easy way for her to be a cis guy's idea of want a strong female protagonist is.

A modern mortal becoming pregnant by Zeus is a story with legs, and one especially apt for a modern and feminist telling. One that eschews casting Hera as the hateful harpy-shrew scorned wife, women turning on and destroying each other over the actions of men (this couldn't be more appropriately portrayed as it is in this. It's almost comical), never ascribing/ Zeus taking no accountability for his actions, a discussion about the utter lack of consent that is his M.O (yes, taking the form of something a person literally "cannot resist" is a consent issue)*, but instead it's paint by numbers meddlsome gods and 'crazy bitches' shtick, which, as played out as it is, can still have legs if it's down well. This just isn't.

It's not awful and there's some interesting enough ideas among what is a surprisingly lazy and uninspired first volume of this incarnation of Wonder Woman.

*I am absolutely a intersectional feminist, Gender malconent, and alphabet imp, but I resent how basic and shitty this writing is to necessitate me sounding like some faux progressive wokescold. show less