Looks like Troy Little brought the Chemical X to IDW’s new “Powerpuff Girls” miniseries. It’s full of sugar and spice, which makes for an all-ages comic book experience that is pretty darn nice.
Written and Illustrated by Troy Little
Citizens of Townsville, fear not! The Powerpuff Girls are back! In this IDW debut issue Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are back to take down the meanest of the mean and the ugliest of the ugly! Plus, what fiendish secret is Mojo Jojo hiding? The answer is sure to surprise!
I remember when Craig McCracken’s Powerpuff Girls debuted in 1998. I was an 11 year old boy, and far too cool for a “girl cartoon.” (He said smugly, just before running home to watch Sailor Moon in the afternoon afternoon.) The reality is that that’s not what Powerpuff Girls was. Yes, the cartoon gave girls some heroes to watch in a TV landscape that was mostly an adrenaline-fueled little boys’ club. But it was also subversive in its ability to tap into the culture, sly in its sense of humor, and deliciously pop thanks to its simple designs and eye-popping colors. It was a show that I eventually warmed up to and grew into, becoming ever more fascinated in its style, gusto, and rampant -though ultimately bloodless – violence.
The animated television landscape has changed a lot since then. For one, we’ve got just as many “adult” cartoons as we have kids cartoons. Within the realm of the children’s cartoon, simple concepts like “superpowered elementary school girls fight crime” have been replaced by “cartoons about nothing” (Regular Show) and audacious, mushroom-fueled madcap (Adventure Time). Both of these are great shows, but they’re a product of the modern era, just as PPG was a product of its own. Over a decade later, along comes Troy Little’s “Powerpuff Girls” comic. The pop culture statement may be dulled, but the kid-friendly, power-packed formula is timeless. Little sticks pretty much right to it.
This being a 5-issue mini, Little is smart to pull out the PPG’s most popular and important villain right off the bat: Mojo Jojo. Their early encounter with him is played for laughs, with a pretty overt reference to the kinds of regurgitated villainous schemes that Lex Luthor continually has foiled for him by the Man of Steel. The Powerpuff Girls make pretty quick work of him, which kicks off the beginning of what looks like it’ll be a real honest-to-god character arc for Jojo. In turn, Mojo Jojo doesn’t quite sound like himself as we know him from the cartoon, but I think his mopiness and general low self-esteem is an interesting choice that Little made to intentionally play the character differently. He may not end up entirely sounding like the Mojo we know, but that makes the story all the more fascinating – and certainly more so than it needed to be. The rest of the issue (until it’s honestly staggering cliffhanger) follows the Powerpuff Girls on city-saving exploits, which even allow for the opportunity for a lot of cheesy golf-related puns. Unlike Mojo Jojo, the PPG sounds exactly like we remember them sounding – each personality wonderfully in tact. If I have any qualms with the writing, it’s that much of the subversive, borderline adult humor is jettisoned for the sillier side of “Townsville.” This seems like a choice made to ensure that kids don’t catch anything mature. It’s not one that hurts the product at all – just one that doesn’t perfectly replicate the original experience of the property.
Speaking of perfectly replicating something – Troy Little’s artistic choices couldn’t possibly be closer to the style of the original cartoon than they are. There’s no doubt about it – this is as faithful a visual representation of the show as you could get. Every character is right on-model, down to the particular expressions, reactions, and poses that we remember. Even settings and popular “camera angles” from the action set-pieces of the cartoon are present here, making this a one-to-one visual experience.
In the fight with Mojo Jojo, there’s an upward, low-angle perspective on Jojo in a towering mech suit that evokes exactly the sort of homage and flair that the show aimed for all those years ago. Little may be making some interesting choices that take these characters into untreaded territory, but he is on-point with his visuals and clearly has mad love for these characters and this world.
It remains to be seen whether the character arcs will pay off, but comic fans can appreciate that they’re being attempted. It would have been easy for Troy Little to show up and plop down a 5-issue miniseries that rehashes all the highpoints of the hilarious and subversive cartoon. He doesn’t settle for doing that, which is a boon to the book, to be sure. Kids will love it for its colorful sense of heroism and fun, but their parents might come back for the truly new territory that the series is attempting to mine out of the property. The subtle adult skew that the original cartoon could sometimes have might not be present, but other than that, these are the girls you remember and Troy Little was the right guy to do it.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy for your kids or the kids of someone you know.
