Big Girls #3 Review: Inventive Science Fiction Adventure

Big Girls #3 is a gigantic update to the story and pulse-pounding action; this wildly inventive science fiction adventure series gives readers a deeper understanding of the characters and the world they inhabit.

Ember's origin on a far from the enclave called The Preserve is revealed, as her uncomplicated father and two brothers suffered in poverty before High Marshall Tannik came knocking, looking for a young girl who was easily 24 feet tall. In this period, she befriended a young Jack (the name for gigantic, deformed boys infected by a genetic disorder) and shared two cows with him, cows her father was counting on selling to support them. This early affinity for the gigantic boys comes to a head when Ember stops her kill mission after hearing the Jack target speak, begging for help.

With huge scale action and some troubling ethical connotations, we get a better idea of who Gulliver is and why she knows so much about everything going on. Likewise, the tension between Ember and Apex finds a kind of outlet, and the grieving father Martin gets completely radicalized.

Writer/artist Jason Howard does it all here, dipping readers deep into his own custom mythos. With only the letters of Fonografiks as a collaborator, this story continues as an engaging, inventive new path. Two of the best elements of this work really stand out. First, Howard's command of facial expressions, which do a lot of the lifting for storytelling on their own. Second, the clarity and strength of this world's internal rules — things you learned this issue make things you saw in the first two make more sense.

With all this fantastic effort, this series is now guaranteed its space as a purchase here until it goes three issues at a lower quality level. Being honest? That doesn't seem very plausible. RATING: BUY.

Big Girls #3