Colleen Coover’s two-page introduction encapsulates the nature of the anthology. A series of Marvel superheroines deliver line by line an explanation for why they do whatever it is they do. It's a beautifully drawn piece; and it's idealistic earnestness certainly fits with its colorfully clad subjects. The statement is almost certainly intended to speak for the creators themselves. But it also highlights the problematic nature of Marvel's own treatment of its female characters. All of them are permanent second or third stringers who lack the 'iconic' status of some of their male counterparts; and all of them are more or less defined by relationships within a superhero team. The intro, intentional or not, serves to point out the inequalities within the Marvel universe.
The other highlight is a Trina Robbins and Stephanie Buscema story of Venus which is notable for Buscema's classic mid-century style of art and a old fashioned, proto-feminist Venus vs. Ares tale that feels like a homage to golden age Wonder Woman stories. Lucy Knisley's two page story Shop Doc is cute and funny. Robin Furth and Agnes Garbowska’s story about Franklin and Valeria Richards is a mash-up of conventional comic page and children's storybook layouts which is formally adventurous, although it didn't seem to go anywhere.
The rest of the stories feel perfunctory. The story dealing with the love triangle between Scott Summers, Jean Grey and Logan by Devin Grayson and Emma Rios could have come out of any recent X-Men issue. The Punisher story by Valerie D’Orazio and Nikki Cook is a gag that went to long. And Moritat by G. Willow Wilson and Ming Doyle is a typical damsel-in-distress story that could have used just about any character and comes across more like an excerpt than a complete story in itself. And what is the point of including a She Hulk pin-up/John Byrne homage by Sana Takeda other than to counterbalance what might have been perceived as a lack of cheesecake in the book?
There are two text pieces focusing on the careers of Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin which are there to demonstrate Marvel's historically open minded attitude to women, but incidentally help to emphasize how much they are the exception rather than the rule. The cumulative effect of this issue is that the stories are thin on character. While a non-continuity book, a lot of its interpretations of the properties don't go far past what Marvel would safely proscribe in their monthly titles. In the end, Girl Comics is a well-drawn, but pretty conventional title.
