MISC. MANGA, *Zodiac Starforce

Banking on the popularity of the return of Sailor Moon to anime, indy comics creators Kevin Panetta and Paulina Ganucheau started out with a mini-comic titled Zodiac Starforce Adventures, which was recently turned into a mini-series from Dark Horse Comics shortened to Zodiac Starforce. This has a fresh take on a magical girl team with what happens to them after they've retired and go to college.

Sometime in their early teens, four teenagers were given the powers of the constellations to form the superhero called the Zodiac Starforce. Along the way the final boss, the evil entity Cimmeria, was supposedly killed. Years later, the girls are all going to the same college. Emma is randomly attacked by a demonic creature, and transforms into her identity of Gemini. She is joined by her teammate Kimberly who changes into the heroine Taurus, and they team up to defeat the monster. They power down and go to a part to find the rest of their crew, Molly(aka: Aries)and Savanna(aka: Blair), and go over some old history, including that Emma's mother was killed during their superhero years. The four of them then contact their benefactor, the space goddess Astra who acts as their personal Zordon, and learn that Cimmeria is still alive and planning on returning to their dimension. To add more drama, Emma's magical crystal she uses to transform is damaged and will possibly kill her.

Future issues of the story reveal the history of the Starforce in their early days, plus the addition of a fifth member. There's some pretty fantastic and diverse designs to the characters, and a solid basis for girls like that suffering from some PTSD from their past battles. It looks like it should appeal to generic otaku, while also fancying fans of current trends in young adult comics and animation.