ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Flavor Girls,’ Issue #2

Flavor Girls #2 is a fantasy comic from BOOM! Studios’ imprint, Archaia, it’s written and drawn by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky with additional colors from Eros de Santiago. The series is a Sailor Moon pastiche with hints of other beloved magical girl stories like She-Ra set in a post-alien invasion world. This month’s single chapter issue is accompanied by the first half of a separate bonus story, “The House,” based on the 1977 film of the same name by Nobuhiko Obayashi.

Flavor Girls #2 is largely a lore dumping and set-up issue, with the action and adventure set aside for now in order to let the characters distinguish themselves and the world become even more fleshed out. While I certainly missed seeing the team in action and am left chomping at the bit to see battle waged against the Agarthians, I was more than glad to have some of the lingering questions from the first issue answered: like why they’re invading Earth in the first place. At least the side story at the end offers some action to compensate.

There is some information that is handed to you a little too hamfisted-ly. Still, with so much characterization and exploration of the wider world, I’m not sure if there would be any other way to get across so much information without just saying it directly in conversation after conversation. Regardless, all of the lore behind the Flavor Girls and their purpose, the alien invasion, and the background of the characters shown off in this second issue is completely hooking. I want so badly to continue to learn more about every detail.

Particularly appreciated is the fleshing out of the story’s main characters. While we got good glimpses of them all in the first issue, and they do largely follow classic tropes, in Flavor Girls #2, we get to spend more one-on-one time between Sara and each of her fellow Guardians and more. It’s easy to start forming a favorite Flavor Girl from here on; where the issue lacks in seeing them in action, it makes up for it in giving them loads of personality.

Sara, to me, still feels like the biggest blank slate, but that’s also perhaps partly a relic of the type of storytelling this comic is derived from, where the reader is meant to imprint themselves onto the main character. Setting her personality to simply “relatable” without getting as deep as with the others certainly raises the probability of that, but it doesn’t necessarily endear me to her the way I have been to everyone else so far. She does, however, possess some of the most expressive physical comedy I’ve seen in an American comic. While it reminds me instantly of the style common in a similar genre of manga or anime I’ve seen, the way Sara is constantly making enormous facial and body expressions that set her apart from the often more stoic characters around her is refreshingly exaggerated.

I continue to be very impressed with Flavor Girls’ coloring as well. This issue features some diverse settings that allow for a variety of different color pallets, as well as several flashback sequences that are depicted in distinct and creative ways for one another, but all use color to denote the difference between the then and the now. The lettering also continues to impress with its hand-drawn style. I did find a few spots a bit hard to read, especially when underlining is used to emphasize certain words and the line becomes distracting to the words immediately below them. As a whole, though, the unique style of the lettering outweighs the few moments of confusion.

Flavor Girls #2 is a step back from the action that does leave me wanting, but it’s matched by my excitement for the expanded lore and characterizations it offers instead. I remain highly intrigued by this comic and look forward to getting back into the action after this information-heavy issue.

Flavor Girls #2 is available wherever comics are sold August 17th.