Big Girls #5 Review: High Concept Science Fiction

So it all comes down to this. At least sixty four skyscraper-sized kaiju called Jacks, all little boys who grew and mutated, face down with three well-trained, well-armed Big Girls, women who also have a genetic quirk that leads them to grow hundreds of feet tall. While this happens, the (regular height) woman named Gulliver has a secret plan sneaking through the back door for all kinds of shenanigans.

Every issue of this series has been well worth your money, and Big Girls #5 is no exception. Jason Howard writes, draws, inks, and colors every moment of this wonderfully developed story, with only Fonografiks on hand to deliver effective lettering. All of the underpinning philosophical questions boil down to this intense action scene and its tension-filled aftermath. It unfolds elegantly, allowing seeds planted in earlier issues to bloom brilliantly. Likewise, the fight has such huge stakes, and its conclusion is a big surprise that has real emotional resonance.

There is a literally game-changing surprise at the end that upends every expectation in the book but does so by using all the tools laid out in this series. There is never an outside context problem to take the reader out of the narrative — everything you need is on these pages, and it's both deeply engaging and done with great skill and craft.

To ponder where this series will go is a fascinating exercise, and thus far, no moment in this book has failed to satisfy. Let's hope there is a good long run of this high concept science fiction ahead of us. RATING: BUY.