Literally Graphic reviewed Bitch Planet by Andrew Aydin
Review of 'Bitch Planet' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
And today we are hitting up a Bitch Planet Graphic Novel Anthology entitled Bitch Planet Triple Threat Book One. Which is the cumulative effort of Andrew Aydin, Alec Valerius, Alissa Sallah, Bassey Nyambi, Clayton Cowles, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Che Grayson, Clayton Cowles, Conley Lyons, Craig Yeung, Chris Visions. Dylan Meconis, Danielle Henderson, Elsa Charretier, Kit Cox, Joanna Estep, Jordan Clark, Jonathan Tsuei, Lauren Sankovitch, Leurenn McCubbin, Matt Fraction, Marco D'Alfonso, Maria Frohlich, Naomi Franquiz, Nick Filardi, Rian Hughes, Ro Stein, Saskia Gutekunst, Sharon De La Cruz, Ted Brandt, Tricia Ramos, Vanesa R. Del Rey and Valentine De Landro.
A slightly more diverse group of people than I initially suspected, but I am a bit suspicious of how many men were involved. Not that I ever say that men cannot write female characters, but it does seem a bit odd considering the general feminist gist of the comic. It's already a …
And today we are hitting up a Bitch Planet Graphic Novel Anthology entitled Bitch Planet Triple Threat Book One. Which is the cumulative effort of Andrew Aydin, Alec Valerius, Alissa Sallah, Bassey Nyambi, Clayton Cowles, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Che Grayson, Clayton Cowles, Conley Lyons, Craig Yeung, Chris Visions. Dylan Meconis, Danielle Henderson, Elsa Charretier, Kit Cox, Joanna Estep, Jordan Clark, Jonathan Tsuei, Lauren Sankovitch, Leurenn McCubbin, Matt Fraction, Marco D'Alfonso, Maria Frohlich, Naomi Franquiz, Nick Filardi, Rian Hughes, Ro Stein, Saskia Gutekunst, Sharon De La Cruz, Ted Brandt, Tricia Ramos, Vanesa R. Del Rey and Valentine De Landro.
A slightly more diverse group of people than I initially suspected, but I am a bit suspicious of how many men were involved. Not that I ever say that men cannot write female characters, but it does seem a bit odd considering the general feminist gist of the comic. It's already a bit of a tightrope situation with such aggressive female characters and something that could tip into men overcompensating out in left field and creating something that isn't actually feminist. This doesn't seem to be the case, however, so an A+.
Overall, focusing in on execution, I personally felt like this was a pretty excellent anthology with everything generally on the same level of quality. The stories were short enough that they never got super deep, but at the same time the variety did hold my interest extremely well. Each story was different, but the art styles and focus on the themes of Bitch Planet were similar enough to bring everything together.
Revisiting the premise and themes of Bitch Planet I am also pretty struck by how much my life (in relation to the USA) has really changed since Bitch Planet originally came out. Not just because of King Cheeto, but also related to most people's revived interest in A Handmaid's Tale. Certainly no slouch of a novel, but Bitch Planet is feeling a bit more current. I don't even know what to think most of the time....
And while I do feel like Bitch Planet's attempt and failure to be all feminism to all women is somewhat better accomplished through this shared world anthology of very short stories this collection still felt like it lacked a very strong critique of racial biases. Choosing instead to mostly focus on what could be seen as white feminist issues. All the characters also appear to be CIS gender, which is actually a step backward compared to the main series. I feel like I'm perhaps being a bit too critical but just something to keep in mind. This could possibly be a four star book, and I'm a bit surprised that more people on goodreads have not rated it as such, but I think this last point does push it down from 3.5 to just a 3 rather then up to a 4.