Broken Frontier

Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are center stage in the Marvel Universe and they’re taking lots of prisoners.

Meet the bail bondswomen of Nightwing Restorations – Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. The bounties these two hunt, however, tends to the supervillain side, as is witnessed by their wild opening capture of the Spider-Man villain Rhino. When they set out after a team of c-list supervillains who have skipped bail, it’s all in a day’s work they assume. Unfortunately for them those villains have just stolen something mysterious and the owner is willing to kill anything and anyone in the way of getting it back. Unless Misty and Colleen are careful, that could include them!

The characters of Knight and Wing have long been at the fringes of the Marvel Universe, most often playing supporting roles in other heroes’ titles. In fact, there are probably many readers who have never even heard of them. This is not a problem since writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are using little of the characters’ pasts. Instead the two have chosen to re-imagine Misty and Colleen and carve out a little corner of the Marvel Universe for themselves in the process.

The tone for this title is clear from the start, as the writers chose to frame their satire with cinema, particularly specific types of movies from the 1970’s. Palmiotti and Gray have taken a little Pam Grier, a little Bruce Lee Kung Fu, and a more modern dash of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and mixed them together. The result is a comic that one could perhaps categorize as a ‘chixsploitation flick’.

A lot of the effectiveness of this type of script falls to the artist, in this case, Khari Evans. While I am not familiar with any of Evans’ previous work I can say that he is the perfect person to illustrate this title. His figures are exaggerated and elongated and their loose-jointed look gives a definite 70’s funk style to the title. His emphasis of the female characters’ attributes also puts the finishing touch on Palmiotti and Gray’s satire.

The writers and artist have worked hard in concert and pulled together a number of different pop culture themes. The finished product shows how well those themes work in a modern setting. With the number of comics on the shelves today that are going for heavy drama it is refreshing to see a title that reads like an action-comedy movie with a sharp, satirical twist.