This type of story that is wildly popular with most of the male population in the West–especially the part of it which still reads comic books. There’s no reason why the eponymous character of this comic shouldn’t collect a lot of fans.
The female supremacy grrrrlboss tropes come in at least two flavors. One features the 105 pound Playboy-bunny lookalike who can easily defeat, in hand-to-hand combat, a marine battalion composed entirely of 220 pound MMA champions. Less ubiquitous is the grrrlboss with a more masculine build, bigger and more heavily muscled, who can easily defeat, in hand-to-hand combat, a marine battalion composed entirely of 220 pound MMA champions.
Just by looking at one of the many alternate covers for this comic, you know it is about a busty-yet-hypermuscular woman kicking ass.
What it’s about:
The plot is pretty much Escape from New York. The protagonist is basically Snake Plisskin with tits (but without the eye patch, though she needs one) and a penchant for addressing others with faux-affectionate (sardonic) terms like “sugar” and “honey.” Her name is Rogue, but she sometimes won’t admit it. As a standalone narrative, the confusion regarding her name felt unnecessary and poorly developed. But perhaps there is backstory in previous Rogue adventures that would cause this to make sense.
Still, she is invincible and doesn’t really need to hide from anybody by pretending to be somebody else. I would add, “Besides, how many busty-yet-hypermuscular grrrlbosses strutting through the postapocalyptic landscape, leaving a swathe of fresh destruction in their path, could there be?” But never mind that, because such is not all that uncommon in the setting of this story.
Another character referred to Rogue as a Boomer, and Rogue didn’t dispute that. Meaning Rogue is in her 60s, at the youngest–yet she’s still as agile as a squirrel in its prime. Maybe this was also explained in a previous comic.
The society in this postapocalyptic world could be described as a dystopian matriarchy. But the federal strong-arm goons are coed–that way you get to see plenty battles-of-the-sexes with the grrrlboss dominating multiple men. Straight men go down like tenpins hit by a busty-yet-hypermuscular bowling ball. The only characters who come close to giving our Womyn Warrior any challenge are other grrrlbosses, and a homosexual.
Character:
Despite all the sardonic terms of affection, Rogue’s machismo is laid on thick in the dialog. Her lines would be condemned as ridiculously over-the-top if spoken by the Rock or Jason Statham. But whatever.
The art strikes me as mostly hasty rough sketches, influenced by Manga. In most of the action sequences, I was confused about what was supposed to be happening.
Rogue: The American Dream is not my cup of tea. But if you like macho chick stories, you can probably forgive the artwork. The campaign is underway right now.
One-dimensional, predictable, flat characters that can only score points by an excessive amount of curves on display… All smoke but no roast.
🦀
Kinda’ goes back to last week’s comments, and maybe another online conversation, about how the digital publishing revolution has replaced tradpub readers and assistant editors with consumers, who now have to wade through the slush pile themselves.
Ourselves.
And yet another reminder of the dangers of a creator getting too close to their work. Can’t evaluate it objectively.
IMO.
This looks painful to get through, both from a visual point of view and a narrative one. I’ll grant you I don’t read comic books, so I don’t have much to compare it with, but damn…
I shouldn’t be, but am always a little surprised when I encounter a fellow creative who never read comics. Of course, on X, I am the odd man out among all the D&D/RPG fans.
Heh, D&D 5E is my jam! I’ve also played Pathfinder, though it’s been quite a number of years.