It's the Powerpuff Girls and I mean that in a very positive way. I am one of those individuals that left for college and was finally able to control their own TV stations and so I watched cartoons as often as I possibly could… which was basically any time I turned the TV on. I basically only watched Cartoon Network and as such became a fan of shows like Powerpuff Girls, a show that was not geared towards my demographic or age group. I enjoyed it anyways. When it was announced that IDW was going to take care of DC's Cartoon Network licenses I figured there was potential for coolness… and I was not disappointed. The issue is pretty short which is actually a good thing for the series. It's been a minute since the series was on and though I'm sure re-runs still air, this is a new entity of the show and while familiar it's important to capture the feel and tone of the series. It seems like an easy thing to adapt a TV show into a print medium considering comics and TV share so many storytelling devices, but it's actually difficult to nail popular franchises due the expectations of the fanbase. For me, Powerpuff Girls managed to capture the feel and tone of the show with this issue. We'll see if the series continues to do this, but for now it has.
The issue has a great opening of the Mayor looking out at the city and thinking his big screen TV is on fire, after his secretary informs him that he doesn't have a TV he hangs up to call in the Powerpuff Girls. They fly into action and soon discover that it's Mojo Jojo with another robot with missiles. The quickly and easily defeat him which sets him off on a train of thought that he's never approached before.
The writing was good and it kept the scenes moving along which I think is important for this style of show adaptation. Powerpuff Girls had a ton of quick edits and a lot of the jokes relied on that editing style and by keeping the story moving at the same pace Troy Little recreates that as much as possible. Little also does a great job of nailing the character voices as their dialogue's read very much like the characters which allowed me to hear the voices in my head while reading.
Craig McCracken obviously brought a very unique style to the creation of the show so it was important that Little capture that as well. He does. I'm not joking when I say that this is Powerpuff Girls. It's reminds me of reading an issue of Bongo Comics' The Simpsons in which is actually looks like an episode of the show. Little also nails the action, the coloring, the quick reveals and the pan outs that the show was notorious for; Little really does a fantastic job of recreating the cartoon show on the printed page.
I really wasn't surprised that I liked this. It's a solid issue and offers a nostalgic taste for any fan of the show, but also opens the world up for new fans to discover. It is basically geared towards children so I don't see a lot of reviews coming for it after this initial issue, but it's good to see IDW taking the time to develop series for kids to get into comics. Just do everyone a favor and don't buy any of the variant covers. That is out of control and a terrible thing to introduce to a child.