One of my favorite ways to get introduced to new comic book worlds is through Dark Horse Comics’ monthly anthology series, Dark Horse Presents.  We’ve reviewed several stories here at borg.com that were pulled from Dark Horse Presents to become their own collected volumes, including Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle, the sci-fi series Number 13, the off-the-wall Dog Mendonça and PizzaBoy, Phil Noto’s Ghost, and our favorite of them all, the animal story Beasts of Burden.  In a similar vein, the relatively new anthology series Creator-Owned Heroes has spawned its own compilation book, Trigger Girl 6.

Trigger Girl 6 reprints artist Phil Noto, and writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti’s first four issues of their Creator-Owned Heroes monthly series.  Palmiotti and Gray, the writers of one of borg.com‘s favorite series, the New 52’s All Star Western monthly featuring Jonah Hex, produced an equally compelling story with this series.  Five genetically created assassins look just like the President of the United States’ mother as she looked at 20 years of age.  Each has come close but have failed to get their target with each attempt over the past few years.  The sixth Trigger Girl is different.  She is only a day old but somehow self-aware.  Her first target is a trial run, taking out a senator in a plane flying over the city.  Like a drone torpedo she causes the Air Force to lose two planes.  Then she goes after her primary target.

At the White House the secret service foil her initial moves to gain access.  The dogs that are set after her seem to have joined her instead of helping her.  No one notices the influence she has with them.  Soon she is face to face with the President and he is baffled by her appearance.  Trigger Girl 6 has gone further than her predecessors.  Yet she fails, too.  But she manages to escape and having failed her mission she runs far away, stumbling into a forest full of animals that are unlike anything anyone has seen before.  Was the President’s mother actually involved in an attempt on his life from beyond the grave?  How is Trigger Girl 6 able to fully communicate with a bear, a turtle, a lion, and an eagle?  And why can everyone else understand them now?  Can a leader of millions make the right choice for Earth’s future?

Not only is the writing in Trigger Girl 6 top-notch, but the art has the great style fans of Phil Noto already know so well.  The back of the book shows early styles for the Trigger Girl uniform from the 1970s, but he settled on this more 1960s meets the future look with dazzling bright color choices to match.  Readers will find a book here that is both simple in its panel development yet very beautiful in its execution from multi-panel pages to great splash pages.

A great read you’ll love that is full of style, a great looking lead character, and serious, dramatic political concepts, Trigger Girl 6 is available in comic book stores this week from Image Comics.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com