What happens when you throw the Rocketeer into 1986? “Rocket Girl” happens and if you weren’t already onboard with Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder’s time-hopping adventure, it’s time to get your butt in gear.
Written by Brandon Montclare
Illustrated by Amy Reeder
“DOUBLE REAGENT”
Changing the future is hard to do. Sparks fly when DaYoung becomes Most Wanted in two different New York Cities. Police in battling timestreams — 1986 and an alternate 2013 — want to get their girl. But bringing her in is going to take a coordinated effort from a mysterious player who straddles both worlds.
It’s a little bit funny and really kind of strange that nowadays a title that is just pure fun and lighthearted can stand out on the stands. Yet here we are, with “Rocket Girl” which, after only three issues, blown me away by just how much fun it is to read. In the days where it feels like every editorial note passed down in the comics industry reads “Needs more grit”, Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder are a breath of fresh air with this hyper-kinetic adventure romp. For those of you who have missed out on this title, “Rocket Girl” centers on Dayoung Johansson who is a member of the New York Teen Police Department in an alternate 2013 (which is a lot more sci-fi than ours was) and who was sent back to 1986 to change the future. Montclare and Reeder are channelling a lot of “Days Of Future Past” here, but their sense of style in story-telling that makes it all stand out.
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Amy Reeder’s art first here as it really is what sets this book apart. Reeder’s visual style combines fantastic, hyper-kinetic visuals with very down to earth realism in set-dressing and a touch of hyperbolic expressionism in characters’ face and body-language and it makes for one of the most visually interesting books out there. Reeder employs the use of a double-page spread all of once in the book to great and memorable effect in conveying the movement of Dayoung as she escapes from a tricky situation. From any other artist it could simply have been another spread among many or conveyed over just one page, but Reeder makes those two pages exhilarating in the execution.
What really makes Reeder’s art stand out, though, is the visual styles used for both time periods in the book and how the both feel distinctive and yet overlapping. Despite the jetpack-wearing, bodysuit-wearing Dayoung leaping through it, 1986’s New York feels like New York in 1986. From the backgrounds to the characters and their clothes and mannerisms, this definitely feels like a period-piece even if it is exaggerated to fit the tone of the rest of the book. It gives the book a sense of credibility in the story, that Dayoung’s mission to save the future is important because of how real the present (past?) feels. Which leads to how visually interesting Reeder’s 2013 is and how much cooler than real thing it is. From neon signs to holograms and big, gun-totting robots, Reeder makes this 2013 so visually fun that you almost spend most of the issue waiting for the story to take you there.
“Rocket Girl” isn’t just fun because of Amy Reeder’s art, mind you, it also has a solid, just as fun story backing it up from Brandon Montclare. While the plot hasn’t progressed much since the first issue, Montclare’s focus on Dayoung reacting to 1986 as well as juxtaposing her story there with the story of how she travelled back from 2013 keeps the interest levels high. Montclare is very mindful to keep the focus on Dayoung, presenting each element of the story to the reader through her allowing for a definite connection between her and the reader just three issues in. The writing here is so sharp that even though the true nature of why Dayoung is being sent back and what she’s saving 2013 from is still mostly a mystery, you want her to succeed nonetheless because you care about her already. Mix that with a supporting cast of characters who are more interesting than they have any right to be after only three issues thanks to both Montclare’s writing and Reeder’s character design and “Rocket Girl” is one of the most fun books out there.
Ultimately, Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder have created one of the most fun comics to come out of 2013 and it simply keeps getting better. With fun characters and dialogue, an interesting plot with a mystery to solve and action scenes that make full use of Reeder’s talents, this issue has a lot going for it. If there’s only one downside, it’s that it has so much going for it that it can’t possibly hope to fit it all in in one issue. If you’re not reading “Rocket Girl”, you are missing out a lot of fun.
Final Verdict: 9.1 – You need to be reading this.
