Stop me if you've heard this one before: A, like, beautiful, very tall, incredibly strong woman is found by this guy on a Dark and Stormy Night. But, like, she can't remember her name, or anything. So she names herself after the first thing someone calls her, which is, like, Babe (Not Buddy. That was someone else. And not by the same writer, either. An entirely different idea, was Buddy). And so, after the good guy finds her, she gets taken possesion of by an evil businessman (as opposed to, say, an evil corporation. That wasn't this story, either). So she discovers her powers, escapes, and start to remember bits of her past. And she gets fame, and beings who apparently know more about her than she does recognise her, and plan to 'secure posession' of her. So, does any of this sound familiar?
If not, you may well enjoy this first issue, which features some likeable characters, and reasonable dialogue. I certainly did: the only reason I know so much of the past(s) of the character is the letter column, which Byrne hi-jacked for the first issue, in order to explain himself. So, after pointing out where Babe came from, and what bits have already been used in other works of his, he finishes with:
unless... What if it was "funny"? Not knockdown, belly-laugh, rolling in the aisles funny. Not wonky, break-the-fourth-wall, She-Hulk style funny. But kind of wry and a little bif self-depreciating?
Personally, I'd have preferred rolling in the aisles funny: The jokes here aren't great, but then I've never been a fan of sit-coms. (And a note to Mr. Byrne and his spell-checker - poking fun at your own work is self-deprecating; self-depreciating is when you, like, sign an issue with a pen that blots all over it.)
The art is the usual Byrne: very nice to look at, but if he ever runs out of excuses to draw beautiful women in not much clothing, he may be in trouble.
Art: 4
Writing: 3.5
Andrew These reviews are copyright the authors