In indie-comics you are not bound by inconsistent narratives of longstanding characters and still do anything you want. Writer Sam Johnson and artist C. Granda have a set of characters, both ordinary humans and superpowered folks that share a city where the hero Geek-Girl’s life is in full blown chaos.
There is the villain Identity Thief, a true pariah leaving the title character, Ruby Kaye’s life in turmoil. Meanwhile, the remnants of a gang headed by a man with half the head of a pig are trying to retrieve their leader as they infiltrate the Geek-Girl’s team headquarters. It’s wild, a villain who has a symbiotic relationship with a robot does massive damage, and a character has a natural reaction rarely seen in comics. Summer, Ruby Kaye’s friend is looking for a job in the superhero business. Judging from the interview process she is already way over her head. Looking at that set of comic panels, as one of the characters shows her powerset in Summer’s interview the artwork is stunning in its subtle consistency. Tattoos that move on a character are tough and to see the accuracy from the cover of the comic to inside on those pages is that attention to detail you love to see. It shows an appreciation of your audience in that all aspects of this medium are important to storytelling. Equally, after the interview there’s another page where Summer is sketching her super-hero costume. For one so talented why take punches in trying to be hero? After all once Ruby, Geek-Girl found out Summer took her place while she was incapacitated, she treated her so called friend like a pariah. It was not as if Ruby wasn’t a duplicitous person. She stole a device from a frat boy at her college to enhance her abilities. Her recklessness and over-estimating her power-set led to a situation that put her in a coma. Taking this into consideration, yes, Summer has fighting skills but with the Hive Summer is going to need a mental fortitude and an acceptance of violence that she wouldn’t otherwise need. There are different ways to be a hero.
Returning to the Pig-Head gang, in the middle of getting back their leader they are teleported into a deprogramming center for criminals, with no means of escape. What further develops this plot point is the character called Numb-Nuts. He keeps repeating that his name is Terry. A member of this villainous league though he may be taught to unlearn his criminal behavior, it may lead to another type of psychopathic tendencies.
There’s such a deep well for play in Geek-Girl. Will Ruby regain her identity? Will Summer be hired, or survive her new team, and what about Terry? How will he and his comrades survive this boot-camp with no means of escape? As “Geek-Girl” puts you in a realistic world with super-powered or enhanced people, there’s this sense that getting your coffee and dodging people throwing cars and lighting bolts at each other isn’t just something that happens in New York City. Like indie-comics the complexity of identity comes in a myriad of forms. “Geek-Girl” is one of the good ones.
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