Shade, the Changing Girl Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy by Cecil Castellucci Published by DC Comics on July 18, 2017
Genres: Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes
Pages: 176
Format: eBook
Source: DC Universe Infinite Digital Subscription
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Goodreads
"From writer Cecil Castellucci and artist Marley Zarcone, SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL VOL. 1: EARTH GIRL MADE EASY„a bold new reimagining of one of comicsÍ maddest and most memorable characters and part of the DCÍs Young Animal imprint led by rock-star Gerard Way. Loma Shade may be from another planet, but sheÍs still like every other twenty something who feels that their life is going nowhere fast. Bored out of her mind, her solution is to drop out of school, dump her boyfriend and leave her homeworld of Meta behind„courtesy of the infamous ñmadness coatî of renegade poet Rac Shade, which is not so much a garment as it is a multidimensional gateway. After stealing the coat and astrally projecting herself across space, Loma ends up in the body of Megan Boyer, an Earth girl who seems to have it all: youth, beauty and a conveniently damaged brain. Following her ñmiraculousî recovery, however, Loma finds thereÍs just one problem with being Megan: Everyone hates her. She was a bully who terrorized her enemies and her friends alike, and now LomaÍs stuck with the consequences. To make matters worse, back on Meta there are dark forces that want RacÍs dangerously valuable coat for their own nefarious purposes, and theyÍre closing in on LomaÍs vulnerable physical body. At the same time, the primal madness that the coat channels is slowly, irresistibly eroding LomaÍs equally vulnerable soul. With two new lives to live, can this Changing Girl survive either one without losing her mind? Find out in SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL VOL. 1: EARTH GIRL MADE EASY. Collects issues #1-6."
First off, I am a member on the forums for this service:
No, this is not a paid advertisement for that service. They didn’t pay me to do this either. I am doing this because I enjoy the service and it is one of the big reasons why I actually read the collected edition of the series.
Many moons ago, I was helping out the forums with testing out their “recommendations” email that they sent out to customers. This was recommended to me, but I never read it. I assumed I would not like it and just didn’t give it a go. I decided since it was on that list that I would finally give it a chance. Even though I am rating it kinda low, I will say that I am glad I finally read it and I would now say that the recommendation was spot on.
I am not overly critical when I read books, but I am noticing that I am a bit more critical when it comes to comic book reading. I think it is because comic books have been in my life a bit longer than reading books has. “Fear Street” books were my first foray into reading, but comic books came earlier on with some “Looney Tunes” type books. I believe that I am drawn to “Golden Age” type stories because of that love of quirky and weird comic books that were often around growing up. I never associated them with the dark, gritty 90s tales that I probably should have given the era that I was growing up. Somehow that avoided me. While the information above may indicate the first volume of the series, I am indeed reviewing all 12 issues of the first series of “Shade, the Changing Girl” as I have read all of it and do not desire to break it down into the 2 volumes. This will probably be the only time I do this, as hello more content.
This was probably one of the weirdest and quirkest series that I have ever read. If I was just reviewing volume 1, like the image says this would have been easily a 4 star review. I am, however, also doing the last 6 issues here which lowers it down slightly. The plot of this is a bird-like creature that takes the shade coat and becomes a human being. There are friends found along the way and weirdness that ensues. The overall narrative of the first 6 issues were tight and some of the best comic book writing that I have read in awhile. The book really spoke about being an outsider in the world and a person that literally changes, but has this past version of themself kinda looming over them. It speaks volumes on the human condition and what we as humans deal with when people cannot get over some element of who we used to be. I get here, that literally the person inside changed, but there is still an underlying feeling to all of this. The first 6 issues really developed this masterfully, but then the back 6 just felt like one warped version of what am I reading? It was still interesting, but felt disjointed for what came before it. The focus changed substantially to me and felt like I was reading a book that jumped the shark slightly. I wanted to like it all, but unfortunately I felt myself not enjoying the last 6 issues as much as I did the first half. I still didn’t hate it though, which is saying something because when something jumps off the rails I usually want to abort and get off that train, but I stuck it out with this one. It never got “better” per se, but it never got so bad that I hated what I was reading that I stopped.
The artwork is psychedelic and weird throughout the 12 issues, but honestly it fits for the story. There are elements that are supposed to feel far out and funky. The artwork helps us to feel that within our souls and allows us to really connect deeper to the story because of it being there. I applaud the artists for being able to add that element to the narrative being told. The 12 issues, in terms of artwork, never feels disconnected or disjointed. It all stays relatively in the same vein throughout. This helped when the last 6 issues changed so drastically like previously mentioned. Nothing changed enough for me to care in terms of the artwork, but maybe I am not as picky when it comes to my comic book artwork. I am much more of a raging ummm language when it comes to the writing. The writing needs to make sense, so the art work being what it was here was just fine and didn’t bother me.
Overall, “Shade, The Changing Girl” was an interesting enough journey to me that I would recommend everyone to read it once, especially the first 6 issues that have a very distinct feel. I didn’t hate the series so much that I wouldn’t be able to continue with it, which if you pay attention to the “Other Info” is something that I will be doing at some point this next year.
“Young Animal” had a second season of sorts with several of their titles. The second go round for Shade though changed the title slightly to “Shade, The Changing Woman”. I have yet to read those issues, but I intend to read them at some point as well, even if I felt these were some of the strangest comic issues I have ever read.
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