Tank Girl: Action Alley #1 Review

Writer: Alan Martin
Artist: Brett Parson
Letterer: Brett Parson
Publisher: Titan Comics

I have really enjoyed seeing Tank Girl getting a lot of new series and attention this past year. I am a big fan of old Tank Girl comics and was excited to see where Titan Comics would take these characters and their bizarre adventures.

So far, I have enjoyed some of these modern Tank Girl issues, but there is definitely something lacking. A couple of years ago, I began reading old Tank Girl comics and fell in love with it because of it’s rawness and it’s vulgarity and it’s constant nontraditional storytelling. Unfortunately, Tank Girl’s current status is missing it’s edge and it is making these new series kind of boring.

Tank Girl: Action Alley #1 is sadly a consequence of this exact problem. I am always on board with things and characters and stories changing as times change. This is one of the few instances that I truly believe that the changes being made to Tank Girl have ruined it.

One of my favorite things about reading old Tank Girl comics was continually saying, “What the hell?” while reading. The only thing in this first issue of Tank Girl: Action Alley that made me ask that question was it’s terrible and boring storytelling. I finished the issue and was left completely confused with what Alan Martin is trying to do with this all-new version of Tank Girl.

Booga is hiding a real kangaroo. It took all twenty pages of the comic to basically show us that he is hiding a kangaroo from Tank Girl and the rest of their group. Apart from this one dull plotline, there is a little bit of an unveiling of a family emergency for Tank Girl that forces them to leave on their vacation early. But that essentially takes up maybe four panels and it’s not enough to make the issue interesting. Even if there was a lot more about Tank Girl’s family emergency, I don’t really care to read about how a concerned Tank Girl reacts to her mom’s bad news because it seems so out of character for the entire idea of Tank Girl comics.

Overall, the modern state of Tank Girl may appeal to younger comic book readers who want a unique female anti-hero, but for fans of the original Tank Girl and it’s peculiarity and crassness, this will be a disappointment. Even if I was okay with this issue not reflecting the original Tank Girl, it is just a poorly told uninteresting story with a lot of jokes that feel like it’s trying way too hard.