- Machine Girl & the Space Invaders #3
- Red 5 & Stonebot Comics
- Written by Matts
- Illustrated by Sergio Monjes
- Colors by Ramon Bunge
- Color Flats by Ludwig Olimba
- Letters by Yasmin Govoni
- Cover by Wenjuinn Png
- Edited by Matias Timarchi
Machine Girl is back… in the ring! Not only Megan is (again) proving herself as the best fighter in the Galaxy, but she’s now part of a group of Space Pirates! And their latest adventure will lead them to an unexpected treasure, which will set a new course for the team headlong to a race of Space Invaders!
I’m a huge fan of comic books, and have been for a very long time. I think the medium can really achieve great things in storytelling, hitting the highs & lows of a life lived while providing helpful insights. Sometimes, a comic will come to me for review & after reading it I’m hit with just how heavy a story really is. At times like those, I find that I’m diving deep into the nuts & bolts of the thing, peeling the layers as I break through into the underlying meaning on the page.
Machine Girl is not one of those books.
When I say that, I don’t mean to lessen the work that’s been done. Far from it. What I mean to say is that titles like Machine Girl are entertainment, pure as the driven snow. There doesn’t have to be any other reason than that to read a comic. I have spoken.
Machine Girl is built on a pretty great framework. See, Megan is a Cybergen, an engineered race of superior beings created by Doctor Peegot. Think Battle Angel Alita, without all the chrome plating. Originally hailing from the planet Earth, and apparently the last of her kind, Megan is always searching for clues to her history. She’s a badass in the ring, developing quite a record in the Intergalactic Mixed Battling Arts, and currently finds herself traveling the galaxy on a pirate ship under the command of Captain Doheb.
Written by Matts, a creator of such awesomeness that he only needs one name… like Cher, but with less singing. Or maybe there is singing, we just don’t know. What I can tell you is that in Machine Girl, Matts has brought together a cast of characters full of quirky flair, filling in an entire universe of action & adventure. The dialogue moves along fairly well despite some occassions where it seems a bit awkward. It’s nothing serious, and could very well be a matter of language translation as I believe Matts is from South America… specifically Argentina, based on an interview I was able to dig up at the Red5 site’s blog page.
Where I really got into Machine Girl was in the artwork. I love the design of the thing as a whole, and Megan in particular. She’s no frail runway model looking waif, and she’s more than able to clean house when she needs to. Case in point:
Artist Sergio Monjes has a great handle on the kind of action that’s at the heart of this series. Megan goes from bubbly chatterbox to ruthless asskicker, and Monjes carries all of it from panel to panel without changing anything about her design. Also, the level of detail in the panel backgrounds is fantastic, always entertaining and never boring.
Did I mention the action?
Machine Girl is a group effort, from the beautiful cover art (see below), to the colors that bring depth and life to the action on the page. Anyone worried that they might have missed something important in the first arc can hop on over to Stonebot Comics and catch up online for free! Otherwise just jump in, switch off, & have some fun.
Final Score: 10/13
