At the last minute in the comic shop I was looking at Starfire #1 on the shelf and thought “why the hell not?” and decided to pick it up. I was a bit sceptical of this new title after hearing the reactions to Starfire in The New 52 but I am so fond of the 2003 Teen Titans show that I figured I would give it a shot. I was so curious as to how it turned out that it was the second book of the week I read, after batman of course, and I gotta say it was actually pretty good.
From the writers of the outrageous smash hit HARLEY QUINN comes former Outlaw Starfire in her all-new ongoing series! She’s an alien warrior princess trying to find peace on Earth, and she’ll fight anyone and anything to get it!
Right off the bat this new title did exactly what this new DC You is aiming for by giving readers a new stand alone title that anyone can jump into and doesn’t require years of DC history classes to read. They start off giving us a short history lesson on how Starfire came to earth and as far as short narrative history lessons go, it was presented really well and actually drew you into the story. The Harley Quinn duo of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti do what they seem to be really good at which is creating a serious character in the DC universe without making it gritty and dark. This book is very lighthearted and at times goofy, in a good way, and filled with plenty of content to really bring to life Starfire’s innocence and lack of earth’s customs.
They also did a good job of introducing a few supporting characters that came in strong with rich development but didn’t get boring learning about so many people. The issue is only the first so it doesn’t have a huge ammount of action and excitement but it does a great job setting the tone for the story to come and giving us characters we can look forward to seeing more of.
On the art side of things I would have to say it was phenomenal! Lupacchino, McCarthy and Hi-Fi do an amazing job of making these pages come to life. Every panel is crammed full of beautiful, vibrant, detailed and very colorful scene setting images that pop when they need to and just look good when they don’t. I’m not going to get into the Starfire/outfit/sexualization debate because everyone will have different stances on that and I’m here to talk about comic books, not peoples ideals. I will however mention that this book does have moments that are more on the adult side but to me that’s a positive because I don’t want to read something aimed at children.
I would have to say that I am very impressed with the new Starfire series. It was well written, had incredible art and I look forward to picking up a few more and see where the story heads. I would recommend this book to people looking for something lighthearted or if you are a fan of the writing in Harley Quinn. I would not recommend it for people who want dark and gnarly crime fighting or young children.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]