Review: Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine

Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let's put everything else aside for one moment - this series is amazing.

"Bitch Planet" is a prison planet in some sort of dystopian future run by a corrupt collection of politicians, and the planet is an all-women's facility, complete with the sort of collective abuse and degradation one would expect. There is a sport competition of sorts, the guards and those in charge want to use it to break some of the women, but they're not having it.

There's a definitive The Longest Yard-meets-Orange is the New Black with a dash of 1960s-70s exploitation film thing here that just works. Granted, Kelly Sue DeConnick is kind of awesome at this sort of thing, but the full package just works from top to bottom. It's a heavy read at times, but it's also a lot of fun along the way, too.

There's also a lesson here for other writers, especially in this era where there's a lot of socio-political pandering in fiction. DeConnick clearly went into this looking for a certain message about feminism, intersectionality, etc, etc. Those looking for the message will find it, but those who really prefer to leave that sort of thing out of their comics won't find that Bitch Planet beats you over the head with messaging in particular. The characters and story stand on their own, which is really important, and there's something here for everyone.

One of the best recent comic reads I've taken in. Can't wait for the next volume.

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