Review: Street Angel

Ok, let me see if I can properly set this one up... In a crummy ghetto, there lives a homeless twelve year old, (13 after some fancy time-travel) orphan named Jesse Sanchez. This girl also happens to be a bad-ass kung-fu fighting, skateboarding, lethal weapon. She uses her skills to fight evil geologists, an endless amount of evil ninjas, ancient gods, pirates and nepotism. Sound awesome? That's because it is.

Street Angel is easily one of the funniest things I've read this year. The whole graphic novel has a sort of lighthearted feel to it, yet still packs in some violence and adult humor that makes this one not for the kiddies.

Street Angel is one of those rare graphic novels that achieves a perfect balance between story and art. Each aspect has a role to play and they come together nicely to make the stories flow real smooth. The artwork is nothing super eye-popping, but that isn't a bad thing, I think it is sometimes nice for art to be unassumingly great, and not distract the reader too much from the comic experience.

Aside from the hilarious stories, there are a few additional add-ons that sweeten this graphic novel. First are the character bio pages that give you typical things like height, weight, and eye color, but also some history, powers, and a sweet abilities matrix. My favorite was the bio for the evil super computer, MegaPute. Also, in the back of the book, are some early character sketches, a cover gallery, and twenty or so Street Angel pin-ups by a wide variety of indie comic artists.

The Street Angel graphic novel collects the first, and only, five issues of the Street Angel comic. Each comic is its own, stand-alone story, and shares very little continuity with the previous issues. Don't let that stop you from reading this graphic novel though, as each story is extremely enjoyable and worth a read. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved reading Street Angel. It was really a lot of fun. If you are in need of a refreshing read, one that creates the joy of reading, then this is the book for you. But really, just read it. Support Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, some great indie comic creators, you wont regret it.

Grade: A+