Zodiac Starforce Review: Remember He-Man?

“By the power of Greyskull,” sound familiar to anyone? Will “By the power of Astra” be said with the same reverence from millennials the way the He-Man chant is for those children of the ’80s? Writer Kevin Paneta and artist Paulina Ganucheau want you to, really bad.

In the first issue in any series, backstories are established and you get an introduction to the players. For the “Zodiac Starforce,” there are painful memories. Barely teenagers while battling great evil is no pleasure joint and we find four young ladies, well three trying to clean up the remnants of their lives and get back to normal. What Paneta does well is allow the reader into the relationship of the main characters. We feel Emma’s angst, Savi’s need for everything to be normal, Molly’s frustration and Kim’s need for the crew to reunite and fight the outer-dimensional bad guys.

What these four teens face in this comic book starts off clichéd, but hold on, the good stuff starts happening after a minor demon is disposed of. The core of this narrative is the relationship among these friends. Yes there is an otherworldly atmosphere, but the problems they encounter are met with atypical teenage reactions. You get the sense that these characters had to grow up way before their time. Making life and death decisions to protect the planet will do that.

As a result of what these girls face in this current issue, you will want to know why they were chosen in the first place. There are some major power plays at work here and Paneta leaves you with enough curiosity to find out what will happen next. As for Ganucheau, her artwork is reminiscent of manga where everyone looks their age, and their eyes seem overly-large for their faces. And there’s at least one major character whose eyes you never see at all. Still it’s appropriate for each scene. Although there is dialog in every panel, the visual, particularly facial expressions are necessary in emphasizing a dramatic or comedic moment. For the most part the art works.

What seems to be uneven about this premiere comic are the villains being fought. Too many are introduced at one time. It’s as if Paneta emptied the junk draw and still couldn’t find what he’s looking for. As a reader, there are some things you don’t need to be bombarded with. Essentially the menagerie of villains is distracting. Just who is the audience supposed to focus on? Are all these evil elements working together or are they being enthralled or voluntary underlings? It takes away from the story and the development of the core group that the reader should be focused on.

That being said “Zodiac Starforce” needs to give itself a chance to build on what is presented in the first issue. Is it imaginative? Yes, however, the competition is fierce and you shouldn’t have another comic in mind when you’re reading an inaugural issue in 2015. Past comic book series such as “Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld,” where in the 80’s a teen discovers her higher purpose and battles evil, Magik, the limited-run Marvel series that centered around Illyana Rasputin’s (sister of Colossus from the X-Men) magical abilities or the aforementioned “He-Man: Masters of the Universe” shouldn’t float in your memory. If Paneta wants these characters in the “teenager with a great purpose” canon, then he needs to slow down and give his readers a chance to grow with his characters.