Bitch Planet #3
BITCH PLANET #3
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: Robert Wilson IV
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Cover Price: $3.50
This is a good issue as far as scripting, characterization and world-building goes. Unfortunately, it’s held back by being released too early on in the comic’s run as well as the lackluster art.
DeConnick has been absolutely killing it with Bitch Planet. The reviews attest to it, the BP tumblr attests to it, this issue itself attests to it, too. This single, standalone issue depicting the struggles of one Non-Compliant woman in this highly functional but highly broken world is a moving and fascinating depiction of a world different from our own but built on ideals that we very much nurture, consciously or not, in our modern society.
Penny is a sympathetic and strong woman. Her frustrations are the frustrations of entire generations of women and men in our real world that feel betrayed by their own society, feel marginalized and abused, molded into something they don’t want to be. Expected to want to be seen in a way they don’t want to be seen. Naturally, her lashing out feels equally expected and necessary. DeConnick delivers on that front wonderfully so.
Is this a war waged for women’s minds? Is it for men’s? Who is in power and why? All of these questions are raised, subtlety, just by this issue.
All of those questions could be implemented later in the main arc of Bitch Planet equally well though. These creators took a risk taking away the spotlight from Kogo so early on. I don’t think it pays off in exactly the ways they expected, unfortunately.
It’s only the third issue and we have little feel or grasp on the complex tones and nature of this world. It’s simply too early to be focusing on side stories, no matter how touching, moving and layered they are like this issue’s is.
Robert Wilson IV’s art, too, feels like a misstep in the flashback sequences. The “present” or “future” segments are perfectly in line with BP’s tone up to now, they deliver on every aspect you should’ve come to expect after reading the first two issues. The flashbacks, though, feel bland. There’s little intricacy or layering aside from the news segment in the background of the bakery scene. It certainly does a good job of conveying Penny’s frustrations and memories but, it’s nothing to write home about and there’s a massive opportunity missed in heightening the emotional aspects of her story with the art.
This is a good standalone story that, after seeing Penny in the context of Kogo’s “main” story, I would’ve liked much more. It’s really too early to be doing things like this no matter how inspired and good it is because, again, it still is very good.
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: Robert Wilson IV
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Cover Price: $3.50
This is a good issue as far as scripting, characterization and world-building goes. Unfortunately, it’s held back by being released too early on in the comic’s run as well as the lackluster art.
DeConnick has been absolutely killing it with Bitch Planet. The reviews attest to it, the BP tumblr attests to it, this issue itself attests to it, too. This single, standalone issue depicting the struggles of one Non-Compliant woman in this highly functional but highly broken world is a moving and fascinating depiction of a world different from our own but built on ideals that we very much nurture, consciously or not, in our modern society.
Penny is a sympathetic and strong woman. Her frustrations are the frustrations of entire generations of women and men in our real world that feel betrayed by their own society, feel marginalized and abused, molded into something they don’t want to be. Expected to want to be seen in a way they don’t want to be seen. Naturally, her lashing out feels equally expected and necessary. DeConnick delivers on that front wonderfully so.
Is this a war waged for women’s minds? Is it for men’s? Who is in power and why? All of these questions are raised, subtlety, just by this issue.
All of those questions could be implemented later in the main arc of Bitch Planet equally well though. These creators took a risk taking away the spotlight from Kogo so early on. I don’t think it pays off in exactly the ways they expected, unfortunately.
It’s only the third issue and we have little feel or grasp on the complex tones and nature of this world. It’s simply too early to be focusing on side stories, no matter how touching, moving and layered they are like this issue’s is.
Robert Wilson IV’s art, too, feels like a misstep in the flashback sequences. The “present” or “future” segments are perfectly in line with BP’s tone up to now, they deliver on every aspect you should’ve come to expect after reading the first two issues. The flashbacks, though, feel bland. There’s little intricacy or layering aside from the news segment in the background of the bakery scene. It certainly does a good job of conveying Penny’s frustrations and memories but, it’s nothing to write home about and there’s a massive opportunity missed in heightening the emotional aspects of her story with the art.
This is a good standalone story that, after seeing Penny in the context of Kogo’s “main” story, I would’ve liked much more. It’s really too early to be doing things like this no matter how inspired and good it is because, again, it still is very good.
A Look Inside
