Broken Frontier

There’s a calm in the storm of naked women terrorizing Pennytown as the townsfolk try to figure out just what is going on.

Girls, the new tale from the Luna Brothers, began with a young man having a bit of a breakdown. After a tirade against everyone else in town, Ethan finds a naked woman walking in the middle of the road with a bullet wound. And everyone knows, when you find a bleeding, naked woman walking in the road, and you take her home, there’s going to be trouble. Trouble it has been too, as the woman seemingly created copies of herself in Ethan’s bathroom, clones that spent the last issue beating up on all the town’s females. Now that the "girls" have finally been chased away, the town searches for some answers from the local hillbillies, who apparently were the first people to see this mysterious naked woman.

Joshua Luna writes some good dialogue for his characters. By putting them in a situation like this, he’s been able to showcase a wide range of emotions, highlight certain things about each character, and write some fairly fun dialogue. The problem here is with his storytelling and pacing. After 5 issues, we’ve gotten exactly 0 answers and are barely teased in this issue. And especially when you’re in a "cool down" 5th issue, where the conflicts are on hold, there should be some semblance of answers. Instead, the questions continue to pile up. Compounding this is the issue’s complete lack of tension. We’ve got a well written mystery that provides no tension at all. The dialogue is enough to forgive these problems after five issues, but if it continues on for the next three the same way it may be too much.

The best way to describe Jonathan Luna’s artwork is that its beauty lies into its simplicity. His work is not overly detailed, but the line work is simple and clean. The characters all look unique and yet none really stand out. And this is a good thing for a story that is supposed to take place in a stereotypical small town in America. Luna makes the best of his simple artwork with his spectacular coloring and shading. Where the artwork itself doesn’t have great detail, the coloring adds multiple dimensions and adds all the depth and style that is needed.

As their second major comic book work, Girls is still an admirable success for the Luna Brothers. This issue didn’t live up to the promise laid out by the four previous, but it isn’t nearly enough to make anyone give up on it. With the nice dialogue and great artwork, the Luna Brothers will undoubtedly get the story back on track.