Review:
This book looks and feels so different from your typical - or really any - superhero capes and powers story. It's a delightful collection of the complete Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville limited series.
First and foremost, it's about time that these women got a series! Fire and Ice, two BFFs who have been in and out of Justice League books for decades, finally get an extended spotlight.
Tora Olafsdotter, the Norwegian ice princess or goddess (depending on your place in continuity!) and Beatriz da Costa, the steamy-hot Brazilian model with her flames and flight, are as opposite in personality as in powers.
Their differences get full play here. The different reactions to their Smallville-based banishment are a centerpiece of both the plot and the page-to-page action. Wait, banishment to Smallville? Yeah, after a disastrous outing that included a destructive public spat between Guy Gardner and Fire, Superman sends them to his hometown to learn some life lessons. It's R&R time, with heavy emphasis on the Rehab.
Ice embraces the opportunity - the small town, the pace of life, the community, the depth of relationships, it all inspires her. Fire, however, is horrified and humiliated. She's determined to keep up her hero creds and her social media profile. When the hair salon idea doesn't pan out as hoped, she recruits a bunch of C-List villains (Beefeater, Lot's Wife, Honey, Linka, Miss Congeniality, Gentleman Ghost and more) to serve as foils for her heroics. And later as her pet villain-rehab projects.
Mix in a possessed mask from the living island of Kooey Kooey Kooey plus a ravenous demon from Ice's past, throw in a one-night stand with Lobo, and Smallville never saw such caped chaos.
What really sets this book apart are the relationship angles in the story, and the amazing visuals from this all-woman creative team. The dialog and relationship tensions are sometimes clever, always deep and nuanced. The result is something unique in superhero comics. To name just a few of the fun and unusual elements you'll find here: Fire and Ice go through all the love-hate swings of true blood-friends; Martha Kent and her pie are a running gag; Tamarind the hairdresser of dubious skill but folksy wisdom; wheelchair-bound Charlie and his possessed sister Rocky; and of course, the on-going drama among the C-Lister villains. All these and more are rich and filled with texture, having both levity and depth.
The visuals are bright and cheery throughout. The faces are reminiscent of the best of Archie Comics with their big eyes and open expressions. And these pages are loaded with great fashions. Caped heroes are renowned for always wearing their costumes, even when enjoying quiet moments. Not here! These characters are always changing their clothes, almost like normal people! They don so many different good-looking outfits in the stories. And the beautiful variant covers included in the TPB show how different artists took their cue from this creative team in order to reimagine Fire and Ice in other sassy, sexy, country outfits and more.
The book does have a handful of misses. The biggest of which has to be the intelligent alien robot L-Ron. He was introduced to the DC universe at almost the same time as Fire and Ice, in the old JLI. Here, he is akin to a Disney movie comic sidekick, a role that is completely unnecessary here with so m any other comic moments throughout. The Simplistic and rapid conclusion also leaves us wanting more. It all resolves in a relational way, perhaps more feminine than the typical macho slugfests, and that is great, very consistent with the rest of the book. But the tension wraps up and dissipates too abruptly.
But those are minor quibbles in an otherwise fantastic book, a highly recommended four capes.
Description:
Small town, big trouble! Things go from bad to worse for the iconic Justice League duo of Fire and Ice, as they seek a fresh start in Superman’s hometown.
Things could not possibly be worse for Fire and Ice. Superman sent the former Justice Leaguers packing for Smallville following an extremely public and utterly disastrous mission, and in doing so doomed them to a fate worse than death: irrelevance.
Ice finds herself drawn to the quiet life and dreams of planting roots. But Fire...well, Fire will do just about anything to get the heck outta Dodge and back on the hero circuit—including challenging the biggest villains in the DC Universe to a knock-down, drag-out, live-streamed brawl in the streets of Smallville! Can Fire and Ice’s friendship survive visits from the Multiverse’s weirdest and wildest wannabe villains, Jimmy Olsen’s search for scoops, and… the stress of running a hair salon?!
Collects: Complete 6-issue limited series
Authors: Joanne Starer
Artists: Natacha Bustos, Tamra Bonvillain
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Aug 6, 2024
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 9781779527394
Pages: 144 pages
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