Warm Fuzzies and Sharp Shuriken
Reviews from the Webmistress

BotP: Princess #1 - Just Nice
November 25, 2004 (Issue released October, 2004)

Top Cow is famous for "hot" characters. Sarah Pezzini of Witchblade, Jackie Estacado of The Darkness, and now Princess of Battle of the Planets. From some of the promotional covers, I feared Princess would be reduced to a sexy pinup--all attraction and no substance. So far, that hasn't happened.

Alex Ross does a wonderful cover for this issue. I've heard this is his last for the title and ends his involvement with the comic.

The story opens as a spinoff of the Battle of the Planets episode, "Charioteers of Changu" with extra footage from the Gatchaman original. Princess is ordered on a solo mission to her old haunts in Tibet since she had undergone some training there. Once she arrives, she can't help but digress to her old training grounds, which she finds in ruins. A chance meeting with her old teacher tells her something is very wrong. Meanwhile, Keyop's disappearance and Princess's lack of timely reports causes Anderson to dispatch the rest of G-Force to find her.

The Good: Lots of action. "On character;" follows the spirit of the TV series but with a more adult feel. Wilson Tortosa's research of the show comes through in his detailed backgrounds: Jill's bar, Keyop's room, etc. And to his credit, Princess is appropriately dressed for a mission in the Himalayas (and still looks attractive while doing so). Some fans have mentioned a resemblance to Wendy Pini's Elfquest art in some of the panels.

The Bad: Not really sure some plot elements were necessary. Art more suited to color than black and white.

The bottom line: It was a nice issue. Like the manga, I wish this book had been released first instead of the 12-issue first run--if it had run off the enthusiasm of a public hungry for BotP nostalgia, I suspect the title would really have taken off. I have heard that sales figures for the title have not been good, and I think it would be a real disappointment to see this title canceled before it hits its stride.

BotP: Princess #2 - The Action Issue
December 31, 2004 (Issue released November, 2004)

The Story: Princess has been sent to Changu to investigate a mysterious statue, and she takes a little detour to a village where she grew up. Meanwhile, Keyop goes AWOL to pursue her and the rest of G-Force goes out to find him. All of them find the Charioteers of Changu.

This is officially the Action Issue. Princess battles the Charioteers. Keyop meets an old man and they both battle the Charioteers. The rest of G-Force arrive to find the Charioteers attacking Keyop, and they join the fray. Fortunately, all of the team manages to rendezvous in time to finish off their adversaries using the Whirlwind Pyramid. Despite Princess's saving appearance, Mark is unhappy. Very, very unhappy. At Princess.

The Good: The art's a little clearer, though there are still some panels that are so busy I can't discern what's going on. There are some wonderful little details that I love: Jason doing a Batman impression in the trees. The rehash of the Charioteer battle that revealed all the action from Gatchaman (though in Gatchaman, the guys first fought the Charioteers in their civilian outfits). The facial expressions were better than in #1, and the banter among characters worked.

The Not-so-good: I kept wondering what crawled up Mark's butt and died. Princess's hips are too narrow. She's a character with wider hips and smaller breasts. I wish people would stop calling her, "Prin" because it's like nails on a blackboard.

The Bottom Line: A fun issue.

BotP: Princess #3 - Time for some questions
December 31, 2004 (Issue released December, 2004)

Up to this point, most of the feedback I've received from fans of this title is good, but they are having a lot of trouble getting the issues. It's not advertised. It's not available at their comic stores. My store carries it, but I have to spend a good ten to fifteen minutes searching for it. This is a real shame.

The story opens with Princess in the battle room, regretting her lack of normal life and dreading the upcoming "debriefing" with Chief Anderson. The lecture goes badly; Princess throws down her bracelet and leaves the office. Mark and Anderson don't think she's serious, but Jason isn't so sure, so he goes to check on her. Meanwhile, Zoltar activates his next nefarious scheme, and the storyline launches into a spinoff of BotP's, "The Alien Beetles." Small bugs that children (including Keyop) have found morph into large mechas built to enslave the Earth's youngsters.

The Good: The Top Cow staff is still doing their homework on this title, and it's fun to pull out the little details in backgrounds and characterization. Princess's response to Mark's accusation of being irresponsible, blah, blah, etc., was perfect--we can see G-Force has been in action for some time, and Mark has already lost his father. There's plenty of Jason in this issue, usually a good thing. And he's not a total jerk--he's empathetic and articulate without losing any of his macho. I was a little surprised because the usual procedure in BotP/Gatch storylines is to have him jump right in with the rest of the team and tell Princess how stupid she's behaving. So, good for Jason!

The Not-so-good: The original premise to this story still bugs me, and it wasn't until a friend discussed the title that I realized what it was. What exactly was so bad about Princess making a momentary detour to see an old friend? Anyone on G-Force would have done it, and if Mark or Jason had done it, not a word would have been said.

Anderson opens the debriefing with, "This mission was an abject failure, and it was completely due to [Princess's] negligence." Huh? Let's look back two issues. Anderson orders Princess to Changu to figure out why an idol was built. Hmm, sounds like a crucial mission to me. Keyop goes after her, without warning or orders, and gets mixed up with the old man and the Charioteers. The rest of G-Force is sent to get Keyop, and they tangle with Zoltar and the Charioteers. Keyop rejoins them for the big battle, and then Princess saves the team's tailfeathers by joining them for the Whirlwind Pyramid. So why is all of this Princess's fault? Even if she hadn't detoured to her old village, Keyop's disappearance would still have churned things up in that area. It wasn't Princess's fault for kissing Keyop goodbye (and therefore implying she was leaving), because based on the ready room sequence in #1, the whole team knew she was going on a solo mission. So what exactly is Anderson's reasoning? Yes, Princess failed to find out who built the idol (had she made it to the idol, she would have found Zoltar and the Charioteers anyway), but isn't the information G-Force brought back about the Charioteers so much more valuable? And what about that information Keyop said he had back in #2?

I still don't think the debriefing was worth Princess quitting unless you account for the unfairness of Anderson's laying blame. The whining about having a normal life doesn't impress me either. Unfortunately, the TV series did this too.

Mark is in dire need of a little writer empathy. Some fanfic writers like to choose heroes and villains among characters ("Jason and Princess rock, and Mark sucks, so Mark gets to be a caricature of a stuck-up Boy Scout of a leader") and I feel like that's happening here. We need to understand why Mark has such a problem with Princess other than, "He's just a jerk and Anderson's Golden Boy." Even a scene with Mark brooding alone and looking troubled instead of just angry would have helped. He's got three issues remaining to stick up for himself, and I hope he does so soon.

Is there anyone else out there who gets annoyed when people call Princess "Prin"? Or is it just me?

Another minor nit: This episode was brought to you by "Rent-A-Goon," the classic anime cliche to use when you need an action sequence to break up conversation. That fight scene on the dock was way too staged: suddenly, in come a group of leering, mohawk-wearing, knife-licking "Hokuto no Ken" wannabes who attack our heroes for "fun," and predictably get their butts kicked. Our heroes get to do a little bonding over this: "I'm gonna miss kicking butt by your side, Jason." "Me too, Prin." Meanwhile, I've just sprained my eyeballs rolling them.

The Art: On the good side, the linework and black/white contrast is a little better, making the images easier to see. The little anime references are fun to pick out, especially the obscure ones (with the exception of the hat, Princess's outfit in the bar is the same as OAV Jun's in the Japanese novel, Operation Cinderella). On the bad side, the body language is overexaggerated and everybody's lips are too large.

The Bottom Line: The issue was okay. Not great, but okay. I liked some of the little details in character and art. I thought Jason's "URK!" expression when Princess called Mark "Golden Boy" was fun. The rest of the issue's sins are mostly ignorable, but I hope the major plot questions are resolved before the series ends.

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