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A review by iffer
Bitch Planet #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro
2.0
I'm holding off judgment on this one, since it's a first issue. I would be lying, though, if I didn't admit that I was a little disappointed. I love the idea of a feminist comic, but this first issue just didn't feel deep or "meaty," aside from Danielle Henderson's essay at the end. If I hadn't read Henderson's essay before reading the comic (since I have s habit of checking creator bios, letters, extras, etc first), I doubt that much of what DeConnick was trying to get across about gender and race issues would've come through. You shouldn't have to read the back essay about the importance of feminism to underscore the work's aim to address feminism, though.
While I get the impression that the storytelling and art style are *supposed* to be grindhouse/B-movie, contributing to a "humorous" feminist work (and debunking the idea that feminists are all crochety tightasses), the dichotomy between the storytelling/art and the social commentary bent are disorienting, in a bad way, not the jarring-to-draw-attention-to-something-ironically way that the creators might have been going for. With all the boobies, pubic hair, and fighting naked girls in the first five pages, I couldn't help but feel like this grindhouse style was taking advantage of supposedly being satirical, while at the same time securing sales in predominantly male market by maintaining the sexism so associated with comic book art.
While I get the impression that the storytelling and art style are *supposed* to be grindhouse/B-movie, contributing to a "humorous" feminist work (and debunking the idea that feminists are all crochety tightasses), the dichotomy between the storytelling/art and the social commentary bent are disorienting, in a bad way, not the jarring-to-draw-attention-to-something-ironically way that the creators might have been going for. With all the boobies, pubic hair, and fighting naked girls in the first five pages, I couldn't help but feel like this grindhouse style was taking advantage of supposedly being satirical, while at the same time securing sales in predominantly male market by maintaining the sexism so associated with comic book art.