What do a pair of journalistic beauties and an African warmonger have in common? Find out after the jump.
SAVAGE BEAUTY #1
Writer: Mike Bullock
Artist: Jose Massaroli
Inker: Jose Massaroli
Colorist: Bob Pedroza
Letterer: Josh Aitkin
Cover Artist: Cover A – Thomas Yeates, Covers B & C – Dave Hoover
Editor: Joe Gentile
Publisher: Moonstone Books
Price: $2.99
Previously in Savage Beauty: This is the introductory story so we’ll just go with the general description straight from the publisher
Ripped from today’s world news comes a reimagining of the classic jungle girl genre debuting a new hero for the modern age!
Join the Rae sisters, recent UCLA grads, as they travel across modern-day Africa defending the defenseless.
Guided by the mysterious Mr. Eden, they assume the identity of a mythical goddess and reveal their Savage Beauty.
Premise sounds fun enough so far.
JUNGLE GIRLS
We open on the Rae sisters, presumably one is adopted or they are half sisters as Liv is an African native and Lacy is blonde-haired and blue-eyed, flying to Kenya. There is some decent interaction between the two as Liv complains about Lacy’s flirting with the flight attendant. We then hop to some of the villains stealing weapons from the UN for the price of a young girl.
Cut to a month later and these same guys, the People’s Liberation Army, are raiding a village for the women and children and killing off the men who interfere. The onlookers, those men who are unable to fight, call for aid from the goddess Anaya. Back over to the girls, who are taking pictures of the non-predatory wildlife for a wildlife tour magazine, when they are called by their boss, Eden, and told the PLA is recruiting again.
We get more of the bad guys being evil, and they are a despicable crew treating everyone below them as either a servant slave or a sex slave. Fortunately, the man who likes the little girls disappears from his tent to be found out in the jungle with the symbol of Anaya on his chest, which looks like two crying eyes, freaking out over being abducted. The rest of the book has Anaya taking down the villains quickly and quietly, think Batman or Ninjas, and then confronting the general to reveal that Anaya is the two sisters.
GIRLS IN BIKINIS
The artwork here is quite good. We get a very realistic style with nothing exceptionally flashy standing out. I do have a mild problem with the sound effects as they show up so little they really stand out, which is not what this book wanted. My only other grip was a single panel, after the girls are revealed, that just looks physically impossible. The angle of the body and the way she is kicking look out of place and caused me to double take. Take out this one panel and it is a very good looking book.
BOTTOM LINE: GIVE IT A SHOT
A couple more cool tidbits from the issue, the title page had some fake news stories about what was happening in the area and a classic Camilla story in the back, for those into that sort of thing. So, this is definitely not something I would have picked up on my own, but the premise is promising enough and the book well enough put together that I will be looking forward to number two. Other than a very small portion of the art, my only gripe was the complete lack of back story for any of the characters. Despite this, it still earns 2.5 of 5 stars.
