One of the main reasons It Girl and the Atomics is so fun to read is because It Girl is such a relatable character. Newly gifted with powers from alien spores in issue #1, we first meet Luna (It Girl) through her video game persona, then in person. Sitting in her dimly lit room, clad in only a bath robe and slippers, she passes her time by playing Dark Streets, a video game in which she is a character. Finally, a lazy superhero.
While she plays her video game in the first issue, we are introduced to the Moriarty-level enemy. Only known to her as Lala Wah-Wah in the online video game, she even plays as the villain.
In the second and most recent issue, however, It Girl is still floating in hyperspace from an experiment gone wrong in Dr. Gillespie Flem’s laboratory. The plan was to teleport her using electronic transference but she became caught up in the hyperspace and had to fight her way out into the real world. Still in her electronic, incorporeal form, It Girl decides to attempt to stop a bank robbery perpetrated by Hedgehog, Ferret, and Otter. When faced with fatal trauma, she wakes up in her actual body in the laboratory. Even with the villains being in possession of such silly names that really no one can take seriously, they mesh well with the overall feel of It Girl and the Atomics because nothing in the comic can really be taken too seriously to begin with. The silliness doesn’t water down the plot too much, partially because there isn’t much to water down. Only at issue #2, It Girl and the Atomics has begun to establish the characters and a bit of the larger story line involving Lala Wah-Wah.
The art is surprisingly good for an indie comic and doesn’t subtract anything from the overall comic book, but rather improves upon the sometimes hard to grasp plot. When the reader first meets the Skunk, for example, the history is clear in the conversation between the Skunk and It Girl; however, when Lala Wah-Wah is referenced, the comic doesn’t go into detail at all. The art helps in this aspect because it keeps Lala Wah-Wah’s silhouette simple and unobtrusive. With Mike Norton on lines and Allen Passalaqua on colors, they manage to keep it as fun and pretty as It Girl herself.
While the story doesn’t give too much background on the Atomic books It Girl is spun off of, my only suggestion would be to add more history so the reader doesn’t have to do any outside research. It Girl and the Atomics is the Josie and the Pussycats of indie comics.
4/5 stars
