Each Friday, we'll be letting a different DC.com writer share what they'll be reading over the weekend and why you might want to check it out. Here's this week's suggestion for a perfect Weekend Escape!
Ahhh! Spring has sprung and that means it's the perfect time to read some colorful, refreshing and beautifully rendered comics to get the month started right. And even better if it includes some kickass dames, incredible art and cosmic adventure! Of course, we're here to help with one of the best limited series of the last decade, Female Furies. From the superstar team of Cecil Castellucci and Adriana Melo, the series puts Big Barda and her crew of Apokolyptian babes—Aurelie, Mad Harriet, Lashina, Bernadeth and Stompa—at the center of a cosmic conspiracy that could put them all in dire danger. It's a great follow-up to last week’s suggestion of Jack Kirby’s New Gods and it's all collected in a great trade paperback which you can read now on DCUI.
THE PREMISE:
After years of being trained to be the biggest and baddest warriors on Apokolips, Barda and the Female Furies are sick and tired of being left behind when it comes time to battle. So, Granny Goodness hatches a scheme to get the best recruits from her orphanage to represent their planet and its leader, Darkseid. But of course, nothing is ever that simple in a world ruled by ignorant men—even when they're alien galactic overlords—and soon the Female Furies are in grave danger as they're swept into a game of planetary power that could mean their end. Utilizing DC's other female army as a lens to tell an epic story about misogyny, violence and the way women are often written out of history, this is a book as badass as the women who star in it.
LET’S TALK TALENT:
This book has a legitimately stacked creative team with New York Times Bestselling writer Cecil Castellucci teaming up with Brazilian comics superstar Adriana Melo. If that wasn't enough you've got one of comics’ best coloring teams in Hi-Fi and stunning letters by Carlos M. Mangual.
Castellucci crafts a twist-filled mystery that has just as much to say about the state of our real world as some of DC's most famous political titles like Watchmen, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, The Dark Knight Returns and Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles. Despite that seriousness, Castellucci always remembers the cosmic scope of the story and the fantastic nature of the characters with whom she's telling her tale.
Fresh off her delightful work on Plastic Man with Gail Simone, Melo delivers bombastic comic book action here, cementing herself as one of the best artists working in the business. Her Barda is a standout, but it's how she brings to life Granny Goodness that will really blow you away. That impact would of course be far less without the vibrant colors of Hi-Fi, who brings Apokolips and its strange inhabitants to life on every single page. And Mangual achieves the great letterers' balance of easy to read, but still stylized enough to make you look twice and feel the words’ impact.
A FEW REASONS TO READ:
- Get to Know the Women of Apokolips: If you've ever wanted to know more about the badass ladies of Apokolips and what it's actually like for them to try and play a part in Darkseid's society and ongoing cosmic wars, this is the book to read. There's nuance and depth here that the warrior women are rarely given, and the context added makes every other Fourth World story sing even more. It's a testament to what a great writer Castellucci is that she balances the everyday drudgery of being a woman in a man's world with the bombastic action you want from a superhero comic that deals with the universe and its inhabitants at this scale.
- Granny Goodness Gets Her Time in the Spotlight: Speaking of characters who don't often get time to shine, there's a great deal to be learnt about Granny Goodness here and the reasons that she has become the furious force that she is. From workplace harassment to a deep ambition, you'll get new insight into one of the DC Universe's most powerful women.
- A Cosmic Tale in the Tradition of Jack Kirby: When Jack Kirby created the Fourth World and the Tomorrow People, he introduced a high-concept sci-fi world that baffled many readers. In the years since, it’s become a pillar of the DC Universe and a fan fave part of the lore that so many creators have contributed to. Female Furies builds on that in a way that feels true to the world that Kirby crafted while bringing a new perspective to the hard sci-fi worldbuilding.
WHY IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME:
If you like your comics unabashedly political and thought-provoking, then you have to add Female Furies to your weekend reading list. And if you're a woman who has ever had to deal with creeps in the workplace, then you'll find something to relate to and hopefully a little bit of catharsis too when you check out this underrated book. Or if you're just looking for a wild romp through the cosmos, you can enjoy that here too. The magic of comics!
Female Furies by Cecil Castellucci, Adriana Melo and Hi-Fi is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and online retailers as a softcover graphic novel. It can also be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.
Rosie Knight is an award-winning journalist and author who loves Swamp Thing, the DC Cosmic and writing the monthly gossip column here at DC.com. You can also listen to her waxing lyrical about comics, movies and more each week as she co-hosts Crooked Media's pop-culture podcast, X-Ray Vision.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Rosie Knight and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
