Barbarella #1 // Review
The beautiful space traveler is in bed with an equally beautiful man who seems more or less humanoid. They’re both watching something senseless on television. She’s complaining about the violence and lack of grace in the TV fare. He’s trying to get her to loosen-up, so they start to engage in a little intimacy...and then the director yells, “Cut!” The scene may have been cut short, but it’s only the beginning in Barbarella #1. Writer Blake Northcott and artist Anna Morozova explore a who new adventure for the hero in “Escape from Planet V!” It’s a fun opening for a series that holds a lot of potential.
The film that Barbarella has been cast in is the latest from Planet V productions. The director isn’t terribly happy with where things are going, so he decides to move Barbarella into an entirely different sort of a situation. The sexy, romantic drama simply is not working for him and so he decides to go for something with a bit more action and danger. A little while later, Barbarella and her adorable space pat Vix are swinging through the lush vegetation of some alien planet. Things begin to get a little strange from there.
Northcott is exploring things that move in strange directions, which seem to suggest a sort of multi layered approach to storytelling. There is real room for potential social satire in putting a character like. Barbarella into a situation where she is essentially performing in a movie that is not entirely unlike the types of adventures that she had been on over the years. There can be interesting echoes of echoes.as the hero knows full well that she’s in a story that is being told for the benefit of entertainment. it's not exactly the type of thing that hasn't been done before. But it could be really interesting to see how Northcott manages things with this particular hero.
Morozova whisks the action across the page pretty quickly. There's a real sense of dynamic movement about everything. And the amplification of the strangeness of the pulpy science fiction nature of everything is firmly grassed, losing intensity of serious drama. Yes, it's essentially comedic sort of a thing, but the artist never really loses track of the action and the drama that need to be there in order for this particular series to exist on multiple different levels. It's nice to see that come together.
Of course, addressing the fourth wall, the way this comic book is always kind of dangerous. It runs the risk of moving into incredibly cheesy territory from a variety of different directions. A story like this is really easy to do and it's really difficult to do very well. There are so many opportunities for the narrative to move in a direction that takes it to the fact that it doesn't. As weird and paradoxical as that is, it's not nearly as fun as it should be when this sort of multi-layered story is attempted. Hopefully Northcott and company can live-up to the potential of what they’re attempting.
Grade: B
