Written by Mariko Tamaki
Art by Yoshi Yoshitani
Published by DC Comics
Let’s get one thing straight. I am NOT, nor have I ever been…a teenage girl.
I don’t even KNOW any teenage girls these days. I’m not at all sure why I keep getting sent graphic novels aimed directly at teenage girls to review. That said, they’ve all been better than a lot of stuff aimed more in my direction. In fact, if they’re all as good as I Am Not Starfire, I hope they keep them coming.
I Am Not Starfire, by Mariko Tamako with art by Yoshi Yoshitani, is yet another clever, insightful, and entertaining “coming of age” tale of a teenage girl finding herself.
It’s also one of those stories I appreciate that plays with and dances around continuity rather than forcing itself to adhere to hard and fast history.
These are fictional characters, after all, and too much continuity stifles their possibilities.
Our main character here, though, Mandy, has endless possibilities.
She is the 16-about-to-turn-17 year old daughter of Starfire, the bronzed alien superheroine of the former TEEN Titans.
Wait. Starfire has a daughter?
Who…? Hang on. Don’t get bogged down by all that.
That’s not the story and Starfire is not this book’s main character.
In fact, what struck me as I read it is that this can be interpreted as the story of a first generation American with an immigrant single mother.
Starfire has dark skin, her speech is clearly written in the unusual patterns the character has often been given over the years, and she doesn’t quite fit in with her surrounding communities. Being a superhero is played up as just her job—albeit a massive one it is—which means she’s not often around for her daughter and really can’t relate to her.
The short, frumpy, freckled Mandy, for her part, does what so many teenagers do—she rebels.
She dyes her bright hair black, wears lots of black makeup, black clothes, and gets a nose ring. At school, some kids pester her because of who her mother is, others treat her as the ultimate Daria-style nerd. The fact that she’s also gay, although a major plot point in some ways, is just kind of glossed over as her world comes to a boil after she walks out on her S.A.T. test and her mother eventually finds out.
All of Mandy’s angst and hatred of the world is portrayed so well that the reader can feel it continually build, and the striking, colorful computer-painted art goes a long way toward helping that effect. Artist Yoshi Yoshitani’s loose, playful style has a marvelous way of underlining intense feelings and emotions through just the eyes of her characters.
In the end, Mandy’s aunt, Blackfire, arrives on Earth, and her “visit” reveals a bigger picture, putting our heroine’s day to day travails in an entirely new perspective.
There are lots of funny throwaway bits such as Beast (When did Beast Boy become Beast? Does Hank McCoy know about that?) as a green dog wearing a space helmet, and a book of superhero autographs showing “Robin (IV?)”.
Ultimately, in the great tradition of stories, (spoiler) mother and daughter make up, and Mandy even gets the girl!
I may not have ever been the target audience for I Am Not Starfire but when it can still manage to hit a 62 year old male fogey like me with—as teenage girls apparently say these days—“the feels,” then I can only imagine how it might positively affect real life Mandys.
Booksteve recommends.
