Review: 21st Century Tank Girl #3
Here we are at the culmination of 21st Century Tank Girl’s three issue arc. At the beginning of this I said I was a novice to Tank Girl (I’m also a novice to reviewing comics and thank you for bearing with me ‘cause I’m still learning, y’all) but I’ve walked away from this with a real appreciation for Tank Girl and I see why her fans love her. On the surface Tank Girl, both the character and the comic, is just a loud, nearly naked drunken stoner who likes to swear a lot. But underneath that there’s also a lot about friendship, loyalty and maturing … Or fighting against maturing.
This issue sees the return of Brett Parson, who did the cover art again. Jamie Hewlett and Jim Mahfood also return. There are two newcomers, Craig Knowles and Warwick Johnson-Caldwell. Mahfoud gets a much longer story with the tale of “Valleri” which plays out as a mystery girl/heist story. It hits topics like loyalty and theology while also being completely ridiculous as Tank Girl and her crew try to steal the underpants of God from a museum. Spoiler alert: God wears tighty whiteys.
One thing I haven’t really discussed is the pin-up pictures sprinkled throughout the book. Hewlett and Knowles provide my favorite this issue. One is a simple three-toned drawing of Tank Girl and Booga in a palette of blues, reds, and yellows. The other shows Tank Girl perched on the precipice of a building while the words that encourage the reader to “break out, to mutate … push the envelope (and) pull the envelope”. Finally, I just love Parson’s interpretation of Jet Girl. He makes her look alluring and relatable all in a single frame.
The entire collection of 21st Century Tank Girl will be out December 2015.
