Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Mindfield
Written by: Steve Vance
Artists: Christine Norrie & J. Bone
Colored by: Lee Loughridge
Lettered by: Kurt Hathaway
Assistant Editor: Harvey Richards
Editor: Joan Hilty
Publisher: DC Comics
As experiments go
DC has had some monstrously successful launches recently, including: Teen Titans, Superman/Batman, and to a lesser extent Outsiders. On the other hand several new books have not only struggled to find an audience, but have lacked any real audience at all. I always get a kick out of looking at Diamond’s sales figures for comics each month. Reporting is one month behind, so the only figures available for Bad Girls as of now are for issue one. Amazingly the launch sold less than 11,000 copies, which is a clear sign of public indifference! So I wasn’t surprised when DC recently announced the book, originally set to be a six-issue mini, would now only be five.
“Five hot high school chicks with super powers…”
That’s really what this series is about, and it’s in the words of Simone, as she talks to the protagonist Lauren. Her next words of wisdom, “I’d get an agent, and pitch it to the networks” are very profound indeed. I’ve said before the mini is built like a b-grade teen movie. It would have worked better in another form; there just is no interest for this type of work in comics. It’s unfortunate since it’s a fun story, but sadly more female oriented work like this as well as romance comics have no place in the current market.
While the first issue was very slow to start, Steve Vance has really hit a good pace. There are some nice moments as the four “villains”, Tiffany, Amber, Destinee, and Brittany, continue to use their powers in the interesting ways that only a high school girl could think of. Shopping trips to New York, impersonating the principal to get out of class, and shoplifting are all played to nice effect. Don’t think I’m a sexist, because I shudder to think what would happen if the series centered on guys. It’s almost unimaginable what a collection of male raging hormones would do with these powers. Almost unimaginable, because believe me I have a few ideas myself.
Art that makes you go Ahhhh!
I posed the question in my review of issue 2 as to why Christine Norrie and J. Bone took over on art duties after series co-creator Jennifer Graves worked on issue 1. I still don’t know, and I really don’t care at this point. The artwork in this book makes it worth buying all on its own. This is fun with a capital “F”, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future work by Ms. Norrie and/or J. Bone.
At least it’s not Sonic Disruptors!
While the series will be cut short by one issue, it’s by no means the worst case of a mini being cut short. For anyone that doesn’t remember, in the 80’s DC cancelled a 12 issue mini by the name of Sonic Disruptors after seven issues. I take heart, that Bad Girls might be a six issue series that’s now five, but Sonic Disruptors had as many issues cancelled as this book will run. I don’t know why I care? It must be my love of useless trivia.
