Paper Girls: Summary and Review
SPOILERS, SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!
We have been promoting the new series Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang, two very respected men in the industry. We thought we’d give you a review/summary of it for the people who need to see an overview before they make the jump into a new series. So, don’t worry, we got your back! Well, Paper Girls is an imaginative series that mixes sci-fi elements with the homey atmosphere of teenage solidarity, grounding us in rationality before we can be lost in the incongruous phantasmagoria littered through out the comic..
The comic opens up with a surreal dream that combines the biblical story of the apple with elements of sci-fi horror, acting as possible foreshadowing to their fatalistic grandiosity later on in the series. The comic immediately grabs our attention with Erin, who seems to be the youngest of the four paper girls, dreaming of being in heaven with the apple of knowledge in her hand. She then finds out her little sister is in hell, being forced into the position of a hero without being able to answer the only question that can save her. The dream ends with the younger sister being killed by Satan and a chastisement for taking a bite from the apple of knowledge. After she wakes up, we are left with a lot of confusion about the possible implications of such a dream, desperate to read more out of a major dose of curiosity.
The issue then shows her getting ready for what seems to be her first morning as a paper girl only to be harassed by some male teenage bullies, introducing the other 3 paper girls when they come to the rescue. Three teenagers maliciously approach her with the intention of stealing a newspaper from her. However, before they can take advantage of her being alone, Mac—the first paper girl in the neighborhood who started the legacy—along with Tiffany and KJ come to the rescue of their peer. After Mac shoots profanities at them, they skitter off. Erin becomes acquainted with the other local paper girls who decide to show her the ropes and welcome her into their crew. This makes the reader feel all warm and fuzzy and closer with the main characters, giving us a sentimental reason to keep reading.
But when drama goes down after they find out Tiffany and KJ were robbed by mysteriously robed figures, the story really gains momentum, solidifying the girls’ newfound solidarity. They track down the figures an abandoned house, risking their safety by going into the basement. When they get to the bottom of the basement, they find a mysteriously high-tech machine that resembles something that is a cross between a Dalek and Adam from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Once they accidentally activate the device, they exit the house to see the universe illuminated in the usually bare night sky. The reader feels like they are at the top of a drop on a roller coaster, exhilarated as they go through the intense ride that is this comic.
The climax of the issue occurs when Erin, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ find and confront the thieves, ending the comic on a enigmatic cliff-hanger. When they find the figures, they chase after them and attack them. However, when Mac rips off one of the figure’s face robes, they are all shocked by their physiognomy—a mixture between James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein’s monster mixed with Sloth from the Goonies. Tiffany takes advantage of the tense moment and smacks the unveiled guy in front of Mac with a hockey stick, causing them to run away. The comic ends with all of the paper girls confused, with Erin holding a computer-like chip with a logo redolent of the Apple logo we all know today. The ending has the reader questioning whether the figures are time travelers, aliens, or both.
The first issue of Paper Girls is a wild ride which makes the reader want to continue with the next one out of excitement. So, jump into the hype, and lose yourself in the fun that is Paper Girls.
