Barbarella is one of the more interesting cult comics of a bygone era. On one hand, it’s bat-shit crazy science fiction envisioned by French creative Jean Claude-Forest and, on the other, it’s got a lot of erotica overtones and potentially dated themes. So when a couple of firmly English-speaking folks come along to this property in 2017, the question has to be asked: Can “Barbarella” exist comfortably in the modern comics industry?
Written by Mike Carey
Illustrated by Kenan Yarar
Colored by Mohan
Lettered by Crank!Earth’s star-crossed daughter is back! When Barbarella wanders into a war zone, the theocratic rulers of Parosia arrest and imprison her. A prison break is brewing, but now that she knows what the Parosians do to their own citizens Barbarella decides to make this fight her own…
Mike Carey holds nothing back in making sure this first issue is a memorable one. Right off the bat, and possibly a massive spoiler alert, Barbarella lands on an absurdly religious planet that finds physical sex contraband and offensive, and then proceeds to surgically remove her vagina. No metaphors here, Carey goes straight for the throat, and there’s no beating around the bush either – all the religious folk that Barbarella sees up until her surgery are Males. There’s powerful, blatant metaphor at work here, and Mike understands that this is the best usage of Barbarella. Since she embodies everything that isn’t subtlety, Carey has wisely used her as a weapon against the dominating anti-feminist male gaze. Carey uses Barbarella as an icon of equality as much as she empowers sexuality, preaching peace and fairness as much as she tells her fellow inmates that desire cannot simply be removed with body parts. There’s even a nice little touch I love where Barbarella even insists that robot guard are not to be destroyed, as there’s always a better way.
There’s some great religious satire too that builds upon the idea of flawed patriarchal societies. The planet that Barbarella lands on, Parosia, is ruled by a religion dedicated to ‘The Seven’, and most high-ranking officials are male. The biggest idea is that the religion removed the need for natural conception and birth, so the chauvinistic government decided for it’s citizens that sexual organs were essentially sin, and removed within them the free will to express desire in favour of cold science and religious dedication. Carey ensures there’s no grey area here, and goes all out to make sure that you hate the Panosians, channelling so much biting satire into his dialogue and worldbuilding to convert even the most stoic reader. But it’s not just the outlawing of sexuality, there’s other great touches – the fact that the Panosians are in holy war with Earth as according to their holy book, “THOU SHALT REVEAL THE GLORY OF THE SEVEN TO THOSE WHO KNOW THEM NOT”.
But underneath all of this, there’s the making of a great adventure sci-fi. Carey’s Barbarella is an action hero up there with the greats, and then some. We get a sense of her freewheeling, nomadic personality from the get go, as it’s merely from needing a futuristic oil change midst exploration that she stumbled into this unfortunate situation. But what elevates her above the typical action hero is that Carey potrays her as a reactor, not an aggravator. She landed on Panosia accidentally, and even complied with their laws to the point of literally losing her vagina before making moves against them. On top of that, Barbarella is able to rally her fellow prisoners into rebellion, through showing them the truth about desire, not through hate, spite or anger. I cannot say enough how much I’m pleased with the way Carey is using Barbarella as a character – still feeling true to the original yet working as a powerful, peaceful female icon for the 21st century.
Kenan Yarar’s almost anything-goes art style suits the tone of “Barbarella” quite well, feeling like a modern update of Claude-Forest’s classical pulp art. The design work here is what immediately excels. You get the very much psychedelic-era sci-fi architecture in Barbarella’s ship and costume – both resembling rock candy with sleek aesthetic. But the city of Panosia feels like the best parts of European explorative sci-fi comics. Almost every piece of architecture on the planet resembles a church – all quite gothic and intimidating (and might I add all phallic in shape), and yet there’s that cold, down-in-the-trenches feel to it all. The streets are filled with large religious billboards and adverts, and the ‘harlots’ that Barbarella falls in with all reside within a rather depressing, quite 1940s-esque prison – complete with faceless, uncompromising robot guards. It all adds up to a well made pulp sci-fi world that Yarar has taken care to realise.
Continued belowFor the most part, the character work is great. Barbarella, as is part of her character, is depicted as shapely, but there’s never any huge oversexualising of her figure, something Yarar has done well to balance. The rest of the female cast, including Jury and the other ‘harlots’, are all realistic, yet not overly unique – most have the same slender figure, save for the token elderly prisoner of whom I loudly cheer for. It’s a little unconvincing and generic when Barbarella teaches the prisoners about desire, that they all essentially have the same bodies. Something else I found interesting was as I was reading towards the end with Barbarella and Jury escaping together – my girlfriend looked over my shoulder and saw the two, commenting that boobs definitely do not look that way in a suit without a bra. It’s an all too common omission and kind of a shame that Yarar falls into this anatomical trap, and feels like something of a letdown in a comic making as bold a statement as this.
Colorist Mohan does a great job bringing a stylish palette and great coloring styles to “Barbarella”. We go immediately from the classical, vibrant purple hues at the start of the book, hailing to the comic’s roots, and then Mohan brings it into a dazzling, yet admittedly more grounded scope. This feels best exemplified in the splash page introducing readers to the city of Panosia, with the sun glittering and highlighting the religious architecture in the city. Then there’s an interesting contrast on the page which almost feels like a yin-yang effect – the bottom of the page opposes the bright yellow sky with an almost sinister blue seeping from the streets below – conveying that under the glamorous surface, there’s a sinister underbelly. On a more stylistic level, Mohan combines painterly coloring and some cel-shading to create something that feels modern yet harkens back to the rich paints of European comics way back when. This works best while Barbarella and Jury are escaping: the environment around them is textured and painted, while the two protagonists’ suits are bold and more solidified in their color and lighting.
“Barbarella” proves to be a great way to bring such a controversial character into a more enlightened age. Mike Carey comes at the project with a grand scope, aiming to subvert the idea of the character and use her more as a feminist icon, to great effect. Yarar is able to competently render this, and build a beautiful sci-fi world to accompany it, but falls into age-old trappings at times. Nonetheless, this completely took my by surprise, and I hope this series continues to increase in quality and scope.
Final Score: 7.7 – A thoughtful and interesting debut, “Barbarella” #1 subverts expectations and turns a once dated character into a veritable female icon.
