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Story & Art: Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs
Colors By: Brad Simpson, Felipe Sobreiro
How do you build a superhero universe? Considering the rise of the MCU and decades upon decades of Marvel and DC comics that should be an easy question. We have seen many successes and failures trying to mimic their success and the ones that succeed tend to focus on one key aspect-character. Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley have done just that with their Local Man series which examines the extreme nineties era with a more current lens. With Local Man: Bad Girls #1 that lens expands.
The ‘Bad Girl’ moniker tended to be reserved for female anti-heroes who were known for their eye-catching costumes or lack thereof. Here the idea of an anti-hero gets pushed to its furthest extent as the line between where the villains end and heroes begin gets blurred. Picking up right where the last issue of Local Man ended Inga Johanning is on the run from her past sins, but she quickly finds out some things you cannot run away from.
This special operates as a free-flowing anthology story as we learn more about the world of Local Man especially the character of Neon, who like Inga had an intimate relationship with Jack Xavier. Crossjack’s power is that he cannot miss but that does not mean every hit is a winner. He certainly knows how to create some drama for himself. Neon gives Inga a bit of a history lesson to showcase why what Inga did was so vile.
What has made this series work so well has been the artwork of Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs. Typically Fleecs would do the main story with Seeley doing the flashbacks. A similar process happens here but there is far more back and forth. We go from present to past a good deal but never is it hard to follow. That’s not just because of the stylistic choices but also the colors. Brad Simpson, Felipe Sobreiro, and Brian Reber did the colors the multitude of talent allowed for some distinct looks. Current day the colors have a softer and more complex color palette to give a more true-to-life design. Flashbacks were bold and distinct perhaps best exemplified by the character of The Sixth with her purple, green, and gold costume. Color choices appeared restricted to the color choices of the era to keep with that nineties aesthetic.
I am not certain but I get the sense Fleecs and Seeley split up the flashback scenes. There’s a scene at a bar where a man tries his best to impress a lady only to disappear due to The Sixth’s evil plan to remove all single men from the planet. My eye saw a style more akin to Fleecs’s at that moment. At times it even appeared as if they both worked on the same page or maybe it was just the organic meshing of these worlds playing tricks. Either way, I was impressed with the diversity of style and design. It also represents how these different times are becoming more and more connected.
The strongest part of this issue was how well it transitioned from one story to the next. To the point that I did not realize this was an anthology tale till near the end. We even got an inventive use of the unreliable narrator using the audiobook of a former villain. Only for Neon to provide her side of the story. That then transitions to Neon’s origin and she is proving to be quite the character. I hope this is just the start of learning more about her as she is proven deserving of her own comic book series.
A throughline within these tales was the lengths these heroes would go to do their jobs. The term ‘Bad Girl’ was fitting as Neon had more in common with their foes than allies. We have seen these broken people play out throughout the series. Now we know that Crossjack was not the only one. What I find fascinating is this series had not been a commendation or celebration of that type of hero. More of a realization that if these heroes existed, this is who they would need to be to do their jobs. In the same way, it is not trying to mock those 90’s comics but celebrating what worked and building upon it.
Local Man: Bad Girls #1 builds upon the Local Man universe by focusing on characters that have not gotten much time within the main series. This issue simultaneously develops those characters as well as the foundation of this series. A foundation that revisits the world of nineties comics to highlight what worked and fill in what was missing. This time around showing that a ‘Bad Girl’ character can have their own agency and purpose while maintaining that hard-edge style. This is a series that brings comic fans together who would never read the same book. Whether you love the indulgent world of nineties comics or more series character introspection Local Man: Bad Girls #1 is worth your time.
Score: 8 / 10
