Comic book creators take note. The Adventures of Aero-Girl #1 is a perfect introductory issue. Jackie MacKenzie is Aero-Girl, the plucky, jetpack-wearing sidekick to Battle Jack, her father and current possessor of the Battle Spirit. Together, they fight crime. It’s a simple enough premise, but what Aero-Girl does with it is amazing.
The Adventures of Aero-Girl is an all-ages book that doesn’t dumb down or hold back its story. Its sense of humor accompanied by its more cartoonish art style could make it easy to dismiss as a “kids’ book,” and while there is plenty that would entertain a kid and not every joke resonated with me as an older reader, Aero-Girl has a few layers and a cleverness to it that won me over.
Hats off to writer Dewayne Feenstra for cramming so much goodness into Issue #1. Hands down, my favorite part is all the world building this issue accomplishes, showing readers the sorts of heroes and villains—both familiar concepts and outlandish—that live in Foxbay, as well as the legacy of the Battle Spirit, the source of Battle Jack’s power that is passed down from one wielder to the next. I can’t not like a superhero comic that acknowledges the need for proteges to take over roles from generation to generation, and Aero-Girl even provides a logical reason for why a 15 year old is out fighting crime.
The strong, but sometimes strained, relationship between Jackie and her father Jack is laid out perfectly. We have a girl who loves her father but, like all teenagers, has a desire to be her own person, and she doesn’t feel she can do that in her father’s shadow. The interplay and dialogue between them is strong and forms the heart of this issue.
Artist Axur Eneas has a great all-ages style. Character models are cartoonish and a little exaggerated, reminiscent of a number of Nickelodeon shows. It’s refreshing to see an art style that has some fun with the human form but doesn’t use it for sexualization. The choreography on the fight scenes is also quite excellent and strikes a perfect balance of substance and brevity. A shout-out needs to go out to both colorist Juan Pablo Riebeling and letterer Adam Wollet for excelling at their jobs and making Adventures of Aero-Girl a damn good-looking book.
And, for all my raving, I’ve only just scratched the surface. The Adventures of Aero-Girl #1 delighted and surprised me and made me hungry for the next issue.
5 Battle Spirits out of 5
The Adventures of Aero-Girl #1 may be found on Facebook and purchased (in print) here. Digital copies may be purchased in Spanish and in English.
