In the latest episode of Pull Wisely, I take a look at Mystery Girl, a new series from Dark Horse. After the video transcript, scroll onward for my Top 5 comic book recommendations of the week, as per usual!
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Hi! We’re going to be talking about Mystery Girl #1, from Dark Horse Comics. It’s written by Paul Tobin, and it’s got art by Alberto J. Albuquerque.
Mystery Girl is about a detective/psychic called Trine. She works on a street corner, and as soon as she meets people, she knows everything about them. She can shake their hand, and she’ll instantly know about their lost love, or if their husband’s dead, or where his body is, and how it went down. So, she can help cops solve crimes, or she can help random people on the street who happen to trust a psychic/detective.
I don’t know if it’s fair to call her a detective, because she doesn’t really seem to do that much work in detecting, ’cause she instantly knows things as soon as she meets somebody. The scope of her powers isn’t really described, and also, she doesn’t know how she got her powers, because she’s an amnesiac — she can’t remember the past decade of her life, and she doesn’t remember the circumstances of how she got her powers, as I’ve said.
I have some theories! There are a lot of birds in this comic, hovering overhead. There’s pigeons, eagles, all kinds of birds — and also Trine has a pet bird. So, of course I was thinking, “maybe she gets her powers from birds? They fly around, they get information and somehow relay it back to her?” That’s not actually part of the comic, though. I just made that up. That’s my own theory. There’s birds in this comic!
Speaking of birds, there’s a lot of really cool female characters in this comic. Trine is friends with an eclectic group of people. She’s friends with cops, strippers, rich people, poor people. She doesn’t judge; everybody’s got mysteries, and she is out to solve them.
The comic ends with her making a huge decision to move to another country and seek out this frozen mammoth. I don’t think that’s a spoiler because the interesting part of this comic is not necessarily the narrative, of which there’s very little — it’s mostly a series of short snippets of scenes where Trine solves mysteries. The characters are what’s interesting, as opposed to the story.
Speaking of characters, there’s a villain here who’s committing murders and we don’t really know why, but Trine never runs into that guy. I assumed she was going to have to solve the mystery of his murdering, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to come back? It’ll probably come back. Maybe he’ll turn out to be the frozen mammoth. I don’t know.
So, there’s a lot of birds in this comic and a mammoth and also a murderer and psychic powers. It’s pretty cool, and it’s also really fast-paced. There’s a lot of information that’s introduced very quickly, and cleverly, but I kinda feel like you’ve got to read it twice in order to catch all the little stuff. It’s super cool, so go solve the mystery of Mystery Girl!
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Here are my Top 5 Comic Recommendations for this week.
All-New All-Different Avengers #2, written by Mark Waid, with art by Adam Kubert, at Marvel Comics. I’ve made no secret of my Ms. Marvel fandom around here, so it follows that I’d want to check out her adventures with her new colleagues in the Avengers (e.g. Nova and Miles Morales’ Spider-Man). The first book started with a bang, tackling all sorts of modern problems that superheroes face: how the prevalence of smartphones exacerbates the public’s constant scrutiny of superheroes, not to mention structural racism, and the difficulty of knowing if and when one should reveal one’s secret identity. It’s both serious and fun in turns, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the series heads.
Paper Girls #3, by Brian K. Vaughan, with art by Cliff Chiang, at Image Comics. You already read Paper Girls #2 when Teresa recommended it a month ago, right? Jump in on this alien mystery bandwagon!
The first issue of Marvel’s Totally Awesome Hulk arrives this week, written by Greg Pak, illustrated by Frank Cho. Everybody’s got a lot of mixed feelings about the new direction for the Hulk — but I’m kinda curious, so I’ll probably pick it up and see what it’s like.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, from BOOM! Studios. If you’ve never checked out this graphic novel adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel, illustrated by Tony Parker, then treat yourself to this full digital collection, which goes on sale this week.
Harley’s Little Black Book #1, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with Amanda Connor illustrating, for DC. The premise? Harley Quinn irritates/charms a series of popular DC characters, starting with Wonder Woman. Sold!
What are you all picking up this week?
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