Frank Cho brings his latest creation, Fight Girls, to AWA Studios and it’s a checklist of all of the things Cho draws best! His first comic book was Liberty Meadows that in newspapers, but moved it to Image Comics. It is about an animal sanctuary with the beautiful Brandy Carter pursued by Frank, a veterinarian, with some hilarious animals, Ralph, the small circus bear, Dean, the addict pig, Leslie, a timid frog, Truman, the polite duck, and best friend to Truman, Oscar, the dachshund, it is Walt Kelly’s Pogo mixed with a little Calvin & Hobbes, and some cheesecake! He also created Jungle Girl and a limited series for Marvel, Shanna the She-Devil as well as working on Savage Wolverine and Mighty Avengers. The competitors are seen on Cho’s cover with the dark-haired number 4 running while there are profiles of other competitors. There is a nice variant by Derrick Chew that has a contestant running from a dinosaur. It is a five issue limited series.
We see at the beginning a program, Empire Feed, similar to the Hunger Games. They are covering the abdication of Queen Regina Victoria Dore from the Gilmoran Empire. She couldn’t have a child so there is a contest of royal competitors. I have a sense that she will come into play latter. The winner will be queen of the Empire! There is a large picture of the empty throne while everything is explained. We see the floating capital city, Grace Point One, enclosed in a dome and on a massive rock with many circular thrusters. This is at the planet, Califax, home of the Gilmoran Empire. The shift to all of the ten competitors from across the Empire. Their outfits are white short t-shirts and shorts with their numbers in red. They are transported to the surface. There are strange reptiles and birds racing across a large tree branch. Contestant #1, Dyana Adamson, a woman with long, blond hair tells everyone to be focused.
We get a jungle scene, again classic Frank Cho, with “Challenge 1: Jungle.” The Empire Feed’s drones hover over the contestants. She points out the goal, a teleportation pad on top of a temple. Dyana seems to be calm and calculating. She wants the competitors to all work together until the finish, but Contestant #7, Xandra Blackwater, a red headed woman with an eyepatch, strikes her with a tree branch. The commentators note that Dyana was a favorite. A splash page has Sandra telling the others to run. Contestant #6, Asher Vindal, who looks kinda like Archie Comics Betty, is horrified at her act. At the Deep Mine, Helgrave is the McSwiggin Bar & Grill, Cho’s college friend is Mike McSwiggin, also a character in Liberty Meadows. The patrons are discussing the contest when a tough guy, Bob, with cartoon pig shirt and biker outfit and his bald friend in orange suit are getting ready to work. Back in the jungle, the commentators note that the contestants have broken in three groups while a hyena-like creature watches Contestants #3 and #4 from a ledge.
Contestant #3 is Kelsey Otu from Alkalon, short, blond hair and Contestant #4, Tora Winter from Sevendor has dark hair with a white streak. Tora reminds me of Countess Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The commentators have brought in an expert, Dr. Mike McSwiggin, from Liberty Meadows? We see close-ups of the hyena beast stalking the contestants. It leaps at Kelsey while Tora uses a branch to lift the creature away. It lunges for Tora, she kicks it away and uses the branch. A shadow falls on the beast and in a splash page a dinosaur creature with spines chomps on it as 4 watches. McSwiggin identifes it as terrosaur. Another dinosauroid struggles with its prey. Closeup of a frog that leaps away as we get a silhouette of four contestants running across a massive, fallen tree, moody with some Mike Mignola stylig in the shot. A raptor dinosaur crushes it and the frog croaks!, very funny Mr. Cho. The contestants are Contestant #9, Callidore’s Danni Vore, who has long, brown hair, Asher, and Contestant #5, Lily Dupree, a short haired brunette from Europa Minor.
Danni’s back is turned, a series of short panels, as the raptor, nice large panel, leaps at her. McSwiggin is fascinated at the raptor’s behavior as it latches onto Danni’s back and she trips Asher. A silhouette shot as the raptor feeds on Danni and see Lily making her way under the tree trunk. The commentators call for close-ups of the raptor feeding, nasty!, it looks up and Lily kicks it. She has moved the raptor behind Danni’s corpse and we see Asher climb up the tree trunk. The raptor races to get to Lily, but Asher tosses it over the tree trunk. A massive crocodile-like beast rises up and chomps on Lily and Asher, really violent. We get to the pyramid with two runners, Xandra and Contestant #2, Jaxa Wyman, a woman from Califax, with short, blond hair and dark complexion. Xandra is of course scheming and makes the final. Bob and his colleague ready for her with a knife and a gun. There are four other contestants who make it to the final. An interesting one is Contestant #10, Pondo Shen, an Asian woman with long, dark hair from Lunar Base 2. We haven’t seen her since the beginning and she finishes after Sandra and Jaxa. At the Grace Point One, prime minister building, he watches the footage of Dyana. He wants to deal with Xandra Blackwater. Some hints of sci fi, Frank Cho touches of beautiful women and jungle for this issue, and intrigue about the contest.
Five Drones out of Five!
#FightGirls, #FrankCho, #XandraBlackwater, #PondoShen, #KelseyOtu, #ToraWinter, #RacheLauren
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