In my quest to find comics I like, and broaden my range from the superhero genre, I picked up Grand Theft Galaxy recently. It's a relatively new OEL release from Tokyopop and only one volume is out so far.The basic story revolves around Samantha Beagley, an 18-year-old student who's very smart and very controlling of her own life. In fact, she gets upset at her boyfriend when he suggests he get her a flower arrangement other than the dozen pink roses she's already picked out. She would like to move beyond the life of her parents' antique business and has meticulously planned much of her life at least to the point where she opens her own law firm at age 32.
Then, for her 18th birthday, she receives a strange egg-like object from her parents. It teleports her to another planet, and her parents explain that she's not really human at all, but an alien, and her parents are really some of the best intergalactic thieves there are. Oh, and they're moving because some aliens are going to blow up Earth.
I certainly enjoy the premise here, where everything is not is as it appears. I also like the message of "Hey, life throws at you tons of curves and you can't plan for most of them." The storytelling is solid for the most part and there were only a couple of sequences that I felt could be improved at all. I think what I enjoyed most about it, though, were the secondary characters.
Samanatha is pretty dry and not terribly likeable in this first chapter. But her parents are a hoot. They get into an argument, for example, over whose side of the family Sam's altruistic nature comes from because neither wants to accept the responsibility for it. They watch surveillance videos with popcorn as if they were movies. They get most visibly excited about playing bingo. They're normal parents but, like all parents, they have a slightly different value system than their child. But in this case, they have a slightly different value system from a good chunk of North America.
Jackal is also fun. He's "one of the toughest, most know-how thieves in the galaxy." He also spent some time on Earth as Samanatha's pet cat, Mr. Fluffy. That much alone gets him into a heap of trouble, and stealing starships doesn't help matters. His allegiance to himself runs right smack into his allegiance to someone who knows how to tickle him under his chin. It puts him in an interesting -- and entertaining -- position.
In a lot of the manga I've been scanning lately, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of solid sci-fi epics. Lots of fantasy and lots of "straight" drama and plenty of giant mechs even, but my favorite genre involves space ships and aliens and ray guns and that whole ball of wax. Grand Theft Galaxy certainly fits that bill and does so in a fun and entertaining way. I'm looking forward to the second volume coming out, although I don't currently see it listed on Tokyopop's release schedule.
(Now if I could only find some "legitimate" manga that I like!)
0 comments:
Post a Comment