REVIEW: Solid State Tank Girl #1

Tank Girl has been around for years, popping up on occasion to wreak havoc in the comic world. Solid State Tank Girl is her newest outing from Titan Comics. Does she still have her rebellious spark or has she settled down? Read on to find out!

SOLID STATE TANK GIRL #1
Writer: Alan C. Martin
Artist: Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
Letterer: Andrew James and Jon Chapple
Editor: Steve White
Publisher: Titan Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in Solid State Tank Girl: Tank Girl is in a funk, losing her spark and feeling sorry for herself. Booga has been trying to help, letting her talk to people on his ham radio. Unfortunately, that broke so they set off to find a repair shop.

TANK GIRL’S FANTASTIC VOYAGE

I’ve always liked Tank Girl, especially the punk rock vibe every book she’s been in provides. I enjoyed the Tank Girl books that Image put out and what little I’ve read of her original series. When I saw that there was a new mini-series coming out, I had to take a look. Unfortunately, Solid State Tank Girl #1 left me disappointed. The spirit is still there, especially in the last half of the book and that is attributed to Alan C. Martin writing it. This still feels like a Tank Girl story, with wacky and insane things happening but the plot is something we’ve seen numerous times. In order to save Booga’s life, Tank Girl, Jet Girl and Barney board a spacecraft that, in Fantastic Voyage style, shrinks down so they can be implanted in his bloodstream. There are things that stand out and are funny (traveling inside one of Booga’s testicles) but the rest is very “been there done that.” Tank Girl has always provided original and different stories, so to see her in one that rehashes other ideas was a let down. In fact, I enjoyed the backup story more, where Tank Girl and her crew mow down an army of mutants. I wanted to like this book, and there are parts that are crazy fun, but overall the story lacked the spark I get from Tank Girl stories.

BIZARRE AND DISTRACTING

I’ll say this about Warwick Johnson-Cadwell’s art: it’s certainly distinctive. It’s so bizarre and different that it was off-putting. Everything, from characters to backgrounds, all look like someone using the hand they don’t write with drew them in thirty seconds. I’ve never seen a character’s profile that also allowed you to see both eyes. No two drawings ever look the same and proportions shift constantly. It’s unconventional art and it matches the unconventional nature of a Tank Girl story but it took me out of the story numerous times. Very “punk rock” in feeling but so abstract that it was extremely bothersome.

BOTTOM LINE: AT LEAST IT HAS SPUNK

Solid State Tank Girl #1 has spunk and elements of a good Tank Girl story but unfortunately, that’s not enough. The plot is something that we’ve seen numerous times before and the artwork’s style is so unusual that it becomes distracting. There’s not doubt that Martin and Johnson-Cadwell are enjoying what they’re doing but it just doesn’t work. Solid State Tank Girl #1 earns 1.5 out of 5 stars.

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