I’ve always been more into Marvel than DC—even as a kid, I watched the Batman animated series but I loved watching Spider-Man—so I’m not really familiar with Starfire beyond the character’s name and knowing that she’s been a part of Teen Titans/Titans/etc. That team. As such, it might be weird to read a graphic novel told from the perspective of her prickly teenage daughter, but despite my limited context, I enjoyed this story.
It's tough when your mom is a glamorous alien superhero that everyone loves. It’s even harder when she’s everything you’re not. Artsy, unathletic Mandy is sick of the groupies at school asking her dreamy-eyed questions about Starfire, and she’s sick of feeling like she has to measure up to this thing she isn’t. The trouble is, she’s still not entirely sure who she is. But between a major life decision, a major crush, and a major superhero crisis, Mandy had better start figuring things out.
Obviously, first and foremost here is Mandy and her relationship with Starfire. I like that Mandy is goth, fat, and queer, making her feel like a bundle of contradictions next to her vibrant, statuesque, high-femme mom, even before you start taking the superpowers into account. In some ways, Mandy feels invisible in her mom’s shadow, but in others, she’s hyper-visible purely because of her connection to Starfire. At school, nearly all anyone cares about is the fact that she’s Starfire’s daughter: needling her with questions about powers she doesn’t have and wondering what her famous superhero mom is “really like.” Her only refuge from the constant superheroness of it all is her best friend Lincoln.
But amid all the comic book stuff, it’s also a fairly grounded story about a guarded but insecure girl who can’t connect with her mom. Part of that is on Starfire, with the way she always gets swept up in superhero stuff and the expectations she unwittingly places on her daughter that makes Mandy feel less than. It also comes from the chip on Mandy’s shoulder and her instinct to retreat rather than try when it comes to telling her mom how she feels. And finally, they’re simply on different pages culturally, with the Tamaranean Starfire not understanding the things that are important to her Earth-raised daughter and vice versa.
This relationship is at the core of the story, but there’s plenty more to explore here as well. We also get young love, the scariness of being a teen on the verge of adulthood and not having yourself Figured Out yet, the celebrity of superheroes, the worry that no one really likes you for you, and an intense trial by fire. Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novel is a fine coming-of-age story set in the DC universe, and the narrative is excellently augmented by Yoshi Yoshitani’s expressive artwork.
Warnings
Comic book violence, mild sexual references, and thematic elements.
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