MISC. MANGA, *Ame-Comi Girls

Taking the concept of the anime-themed action figure line, DC Comics decided to launch a new digital comic mini-series(and then ongoing series)of Ame-Comi Girls. This takes place in a different version of the DC Universe which is mostly populated by superheroines and supervillainesses.

It starts out with Wonder Woman defending Themyscara from invading armies from the country of Kasnia. She then goes to the U.N. to ask for help protecting her land from hostile forces, when Cheetah appears to challenge her. They scuffle, and Wonder Woman prevails, but it turns out Cheetah is in league with a group of bad girls lead by Duela Dent. Duela has had several incarnations over the years, as both a hero and villain, but in this world she is basically a female version of the Joker, but with a steampunk vibe to her. Duela's crew also includes Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman. They clash with Batgirl(who is this world's only "bat-hero")and a female Robin, but Batgirl is captured, and discovers Duela is secretly working with a female version of Brainiac that is planning on taking over the Earth. Catwoman defects to the good guys in order to save her own skin, and she frees Batgirl, only to have her take on an army of Braniac drones on her own. Robin makes contact with the female Steel and Flash(who here is Jesse Quick), and teams up with Catwoman to prepare for Brainiac. Meanwhile, Power Girl is basically this world's equivalent of Superman who first has to take down a fairly obvious Lex Luthor, even though they never say his name, and tosses him into the Phantom Zone. She then gets called to Smallville where a spacecraft has landed carrying none other than Supergirl, who here is Powergirl's older cousin, even though she didn't age any from her trip from Krypton to Earth. Their reunion is cut short by a squad of female Manhunter robots who try to arrest them for space traffic violations. This comes to a head when Brainiac finally lands, and the Kryptonian cousins team-up with the Manhunters to stop her. However, Brainiac uses a special Black Kryptonite to turn Supergirl evil and under her control. This spells trouble for Earth's heroes as she makes quick work of them as Power Girl goes to stop a device deep in the Earth's core. The bit of good news for them though is that Wonder Woman finally shows to stop the corrupt Supergirl.

This leads into the new regular comic series of Ame-Comi. Future issues include Jade as the official Green Lantern of Earth, plus other characters like Hawkgirl, Big Barda, Raven, Star Sapphire, plus female versions of Atom, Adam Strange, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Sinestro. It's worth looking into if you liked Marvel Mangaverse or Marvel Her-oes.

That's right! They went there!

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 9: Page 3

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Natalie Prayor.

MISC. MANGA, *Soulless

Cail Garringer is known in steampunk fiction for her Parasol Protectorate series. The first volume of which has been adapted into a manga-styled graphic novel from Seven Seas.

This gothic fantasy is set in alternate Victorian London where creatures like werewolves and vampires are commonplace. The main character is Alexia who is a “soulless” woman in search of her missing husband. Alexia is a medium between our world and the supernatural. She attracts the affections of a werewolf lord after she accidently kills a vampire with her parasol, and because of it becomes the main suspect of a series of vampire murders.

While this might sound like a cheap grab at the Twilight crowd, it actually is a deep story with some witty and surprising turns to it. This was handled pretty well for an American manga, with art by artist Rem who also worked on the Vampire Kisses manga adaptation. Keep in mind though that its meant for mature readers due to some of the sexual content.

Long live the Princess! (P.S. Happy Derpy Day!)

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 9: Page 2

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Natalie Prayor.

MISC. MANGA, *The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel

Another manga-styled graphic novel tied to an American steampunk franchise, this is a prequel to Cassandra Clare’s series, The Moral Instruments. Infernal Devices takes place over a century before which has been adapted into this graphic novel series.

The story is set in London 1878 where magic users and supernatural beings referred to as Downworlder live in tandem with mundane people. Tessa Grey arrives in town looking for her brother, but gets abducted by the evil Dark Sisters who want to use her in their experiments of creating mechanical dolls made from human parts. Tessa is later rescued by the Shadowhunters, a team of specialists who are each gifted with powers that hunt down inhuman threats to the mundane world. Tessa realizes her own strange ability to assume other people’s forms, and is willing to help them in exchange for looking for her missing brother while evading the evil Magister, leader of the Downworlders.

The art is pretty good by Gossip Girl artist Hyekyung Baek, but the flow of the story doesn’t seem as even as it should be, at least not in the manga novelization of the original books. More supernatural than steampunk, but still acceptable.