Geek-Girl: What Ever Happened To Ruby Kaye? - Markosia Enterprises

GEEK-GIRL: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO RUBY KAYE?, May 2018

Published by “Markosia Enterprises” as a digital only edition for Free Comic Book Day 2018, Sam Johnson’s script for this ten-page periodical provides an impressive interlude between the events featured in Volume One of “Geek-Girl” and those yet to occur within the title’s forthcoming second series of adventures. In fact, part of the publicity surrounding the circulation of this somewhat scintillating ‘short’ is that is contains actual “material” from the bespectacled super-heroine’s earlier escapades “and sets up the second mini-series, launching [in] May…”

Fortunately however, it is far from imperative that this book’s audience have any previous knowledge of the “popular" Maine college coeducational student, or how she “landed a pair of power-inducing super-tech glasses from her college’s resident brainiac” due to the author’s informative recapitulation at the story’s start. Such a simple text-based method of bringing a reader ‘up-to-speed’ is arguably a little clunky when compared to some of the fast-paced, graphically-fascinating flashback sequences other writers seem to utilise within the modern-day tale-telling industry, but is still perfectly acceptable, if not even preferable, when space is assumedly tight within the confines of a freely distributable tome.

In addition, the ‘wordy’ summarisation actually adds to the impact of the pamphlet’s primary panels, as Carlos Granda pencils a fantastically-fast Silver Speedz whizzing through the carnage of Lightning Storm’s most recent attack upon Portland, and shockingly gets stripped to a skeleton when his common-placed thievery irks the seemingly unstoppable super-villainess; “Hell’ve a job yer doin’ -- Got myself a freebie! ZSHAAAKK…” In fact, with the possible pause of Summer James asking Josh Campbell to borrow a baseball bat, the sense-shattering action between Geek-Girl and her disconcertingly white-eyed, electric-manipulating opponent, simply doesn’t let up until towards the narrative’s end when a comatose Kaye has a friend visit her in hospital, and Terry rather unconvincingly tries to explain to his wife that becoming a heavily-armed bank robber, courtesy of joining the League of Larcenists, would potentially be a good career move for them...

This persistently relentless combat between the titular character and Neon Girl’s “extremely dangerous” nemesis really is the highlight of “Geek Girl: What Ever Happened To Ruby Kaye?” and genuinely grabs the attention the moment Johnson’s creation blindsides Storm with a satisfyingly sound sock to the jaw. Of course, along with the Police repeatedly shooting at her, such a move only seems to enrage the cold-hearted killer. But that doesn’t stop the tension rising as the pair’s savagely-fought confrontation develops to the point where both combatants seemingly beat one another within an inch of their lives.

‘First published on the "Dawn of Comics" website.'

Writer: Sam Johnson, Artist: Carlos Granda, and Colorist: Chunlin Zhao