Broken Frontier

A car accident propels struggling actor Alex Martin to the top of the game and the top of a hit list. Bodyguard Rachel Dodd takes Alex’s case. Now can she not kill him herself?

Cover Girl presents a clever idea: an interesting twist on the typical Hollywood action film while simultaneously satirizing the star machinery that runs the business. The problem is that the first issue bites off a bit more than it can chew.

Alex Martin is broke and on his way back from another failed audition when he witnesses a car accident and saves the life of the woman driving the car. She gasps out a cryptic message before falling unconscious and the timely arrival of the police scares away the mysterious men who seemed to be following her. All of this propels Alex into the role of hero, which in turn propels him into a shot as a big time actor. Alex is now an "investment" so when someone apparently tries to kill him his agent acts aggressively.

Writers Andrew Cosby and Kevin Church obviously have a lot of fun poking at the processes and tastes of Hollywood big wigs. In an interesting twist on the typical Hollywood action film instead of the beautiful, vulnerable woman assigned a handsome, tough, ultra-competent male bodyguard readers get a handsome, slightly vapid man who is assigned a beautiful, tough, ultra-competent female bodyguard. Along the way the writers manage to skewer the Hollywood cult of appearance and personality with some very pointed barbs but ultimately, there is a bit too much of it. It takes too long to get to the meat of the story and the vast majority of this issue is spent in showing how Alex goes from struggling actor to mega-star in the making.

The art by R.M Yankovicz is also a bit problematical. He has a unique style that very faintly puts one in mind of the work of Phil Hester but he has some difficulty staying on model for the characters and the backgrounds are sorely lacking. His work is not aided by the colors from Pablo Quiligotti and Brian Miroglio. In Hollywood, a place drenched in sunshine, greenery, and the fabulous and would-be fabulous, most of the colors used here are drab browns, beiges, and sepia tones. There is little here to add dyamism to the story.

In the end, Cover Girl #1 has a lot of potential. The humor is snarky and well done and Alex is a likeable lead but things simply take a little too long to get to the point. On the other hand, with all the characters introduced and the basic plot set-up, issue #2 has no reason to not let the sparks begin to fly. Here’s hoping that when they do they start a real fire.