Danger Girl Special #1 - Wildstorm Productions

DANGER GIRL SPECIAL #1, February 2000

Presumably published to keep interest high during the long delays which plagued the later releases of the original “Danger Girl” seven-issue mini-series, Andy Hartnell and J. Scott Campbell’s two storylines for this over-sized special edition probably provided its 64,969 readers a modicum of entertainment, at least with the book’s opening “li’l Danger Girl tale” entitled “Delusions Of Grandeur”. However, it’s difficult to imagine even this fourteen-page yarn completely satisfying an audience so abundantly keen for fresh material concerning Abbey Chase and Sydney Savage’s continuing adventures, that they bought enough of this ‘annual’ to make it the tenth best-selling title in November 1999.

For starters, the story’s basic plot revolves around Silicon Valerie daydreaming about being a Danger Girl whilst the rest of the secret agents adoringly follow in her footsteps; “Forget what that gizmo tells ya, kid. A true adventuress relies on cunning and instinct!” This role reversal actually provides a fair few laughs and some enthralling jungle exploration when the teenager is busy imagining herself fighting a giant horned white gorilla so as to save a local village. But by the time the bespectacled Oxford graduate is facing the criminal mastermind Doctor Fiddler and effortlessly rescuing Johnny Barracuda from the villain’s chicken-obsessed “egg-centricities”, the narrative’s endless one-liners are arguably starting to wear a little thin.

Fortunately, such a quibble cannot be levelled upon Arthur Adams’ outstanding artwork, which rivals even that of title co-creator Campbell’s meticulous pencilling. The Massachusetts-born illustrator’s attention to detail is simply staggering, with his rendition of the rampaging white demon beating its chest with its monstrous hands, and sending a myriad of leaves flying up into the air, making the monster look especially formidable… At least until Valerie’s comically splats “the Donkey Kong reject” in the face with a banana.

Sadly, this publication’s other story, “The Mod Bods” is debatably less amusing, despite its brave attempt to capture all the campy shenanigans of William Dozier’s Sixties American live action television series “Batman”. Featuring more peaches than perhaps even a vegetarian could stomach and Joe Chiodo’s decidedly curvaceous-looking painted panels, this twelve-page tongue-in-cheek homage is just plain silly, depicting the three hard-as-nails heroines as little more than dizzy-brained actresses in some “long thought-to-be-lost episode” of a television programme…

Story by: J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell, Painted by: Joe Chiodo, and Pencils by: Arthur Adams