DANGER GIRL: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION Review by Fleur, 02/03 DANGER GIRL: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION J. Scott Campbell, Andy Hartnell "Danger Girl is loaded with girls! Not just any girls... these foxes are international spies! And they're packin' heat! Tons of turbocharged action! Nail-biting suspense! Don't worry, ladies, we didn't forget about you... Danger Girl also has romance! But not too much, guys! There's an array of evil villains! Even a few laughs! And it's all united in one great story!" So ran Danger Girl's teaser, back in 1998. Who could resist it! I'm thinking in exclamation points just by reading it right now! This is the best thing ever! I have to make a confession, before beginning this review. If it wasn't for the lack of a Scott Summers cameo (and that's probably only thanks to this being by Wildstorm), I'd be pretty certain J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell penned Danger Girl solely with me in mind. Really, everything that's mentioned in the teaser is generally what it takes for a comic to make me happy. A caveat, of course -- Danger Girl is not a Maus, nor is it an Ex Machina. It will not make you think (at least, not beyond '!!!!!'), it will not change any political views. It *will* make you laugh, and thoroughly enjoy yourself. Danger Girl is Charlie's Angels meets James Bond. The baddies are bad, and speak with accents. The goodies are good, and have fabulous breasts. Our main character is one Abbey Chase, a "modern-day Robin Hood", who is an expert marksman, and specialises both in ancient civilisations and tearing her pants when trying to make a quick getaway. Despite assurances from other characters that Abbey keeps far from trouble, she lands right in the thick of it soon after we meet her -- eventually being saved by the all-girl, all-kickass action group 'Danger Girl'. This group is perfectly well-balanced, of course. There's the token good-looking chick with a hot foreign accent, Natalia; the token good-looking geek, Valerie; and the token good-looking Australian, Sydney. They specialise in knives, computers and whips (seriously!) respectively. The girls are well-fleshed out in every sense of the phrase, and turn out to be nicely developed (look - it's just too difficult to avoid double entendres, so I'm not even going to try). You've seen the plot of Danger Girl already in [insert name of latest hit spy film here], so I won't rehash it again. Suffice it to say, there's ancient magic artifacts, girls under-not-much-cover, eyepatches, unexpected betrayal, yadda yadda. But the thing is, you don't care that it's all overdone. You don't care that you probably knew the ending before you'd even heard of the comic. There's explosions! Tongue in cheek humour! Knife throwing! Senseless property damage! Girls in delightfully impractical costumes and/or dresses you can see through! Let me repeat: a lot of stuff blows up! The fact of the matter is that Danger Girl is one of the most fun reads I've come across in some time. It's fast-paced, the dialogue witty (and delightfully, deliberately cliche at times). As well as all this, the art is awesome. It's exactly what this comic needs. One of my pet annoyances with some artists is that women are drawn identically - but Campbell avoids this completely, and manages to keep unique looks for all his different ladies. The Ultimate Collection spans the first arc of Danger Girl, and throws in a sketchbook, cover gallery, and interesting little special features to boot. It's a fun, sexy, endlessly entertaining read. Pick it up and watch these girls face their (say it with me)... apparent doom!