Starfire #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti
Art By: Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 10, 2015

Settling In

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Leaving the Outlaws behind, it's time to see Kori out on her own and making a life for herself as an actual citizen of Earth.  I'd probably recommend asking Superman how he went about it, because being an alien from another world doesn't exactly come with a credit score.  Yeah, it's time to get Starfire situated and that means finding a place to live, so let's check out this new direction for our slave princess with her brand new creative team........ brand new as in not in the Outlaws........You get what I'm going with here, right?...........Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins where we left off in the Starfire sneak peek, where Kori went to Key West to start her new life and went to the police station to ask the Sheriff how she should go about it.  After a quick recap, letting Sheriff Gomez and the people who may not be familiar with Starfire in on her origins, the Sheriff surprises the hell out of me by deciding to help Kori out and get her new life started.  First thing's first, Kori needs money and the Sheriff......who's named Stella, takes Kori to a pawn shop to see if any of her alien rocks she kept are worth anything.  I realize at this point in the comic that this Kori comes off slightly more naive than we've seen her in Red Hood and The Outlaws and I know that's a part of the character with her whole fish out of water trope, but here she comes off almost child like........... Well, more than usual and I couldn't help but picture her voice being that of the Starfire from the Teen Titans Go cartoon series.  She really comes off like she hasn't spent anytime around people and I don't know if this is saying that she was never a part of Red Hood's gang or if she's playing a dumb act to garner sympathy......It just comes off a bit odd............Still fun, but a bit odd.

The day becomes Starfire and Stella's girls day out when they decide to take a break from getting situated by grabbing some drinks and during this time at the bar, Stella is pretty occupied on the phone, learning from her Coast Guard brother about a big storm coming in, so I can kind of understand her obliviousness, but she kind of comes off as a shitty friend and a lousy Sheriff here.  Kori starts drinking and of course a couple of young guys want to pick her up and end up getting into a fight over her when she leaves them to rejoin Stella........ So first, Stella should of really looked out for this half naked alien goddess, when taking her to a place of libations and then when Starfire breaks up the guys fight by shooting an energy blast out, she makes the guys clean up the mess and pay for the damages........... I know this is supposed to be funny, but goddamn Sheriff, you've got a big problem on your hands and simply acting like she's not a huge threat to people's safety isn't going to do anyone any good.  Hell, I half expected this comic to become the beginning of Rambo at this point, where Stella drives Kori to the city limits and she comes back all pissed and goes on a rampage.  After all the tomfoolery and getting Kori something appropriate to wear, Stella finds a trailer that Kori can rent for a few weeks until she finds something more permanent...........which she almost screws up when she starts making out with the landlady's hot grandson....... You know, since she can learn languages by kissing, she figured she'd learn more English.

In the end, the storm is moving in fast and we get some tidbits of info about Stella's brother being a sad sack because he lost a wife or a girlfriend two years ago and Starfire becomes useful in the trailer park, by first flashing her landlady's grandson and then by finding a lost parrot before the storm hits completely and man, it hits hard.  Now, I don't know if it's completely storm related but when this issue closes, the trailer is turned on it's side and Starfire looks pretty shocked at what she's seeing.............. I'm guessing shocked because they left what she was looking at as a cliffhanger, so I guess we'll have to wait until next issue to find out.................BUT I WANT TO KNOW NOW!

That's it for this first issue of Starfire and I don't know if this issue really sold me on the series......of course I'm going to keep reading, but something just felt off about Kori.  Yeah, she's naive, but here she comes off completely oblivious to anything human.  It's a new take and all of this doesn't really hurt or diminish her time in the Outlaws, so I can't bitch about that.  I guess it's just something that I'm going to have to get used to, but I never imagined that the voice I'd hear of Starfire while reading would be that of her cartoon version from Teen Titans Go, but it just kind of fits this character from the way she was acting.  So not a right up to the plate home run......... which I'm not sure is an actual expression or not, but it's still got a lot to enjoy and I really loved the art and colors on this book.  

Bits and Pieces:

Even though Kori seems to be playing up the naive card a bit too much here, there is still certainly a lot to enjoy about this book.  It's a brand new experience for Starfire as she tries to become............people, but with stunning art and a play on words/misunderstanding humor going for it, I can see this series being a lot of fun in the future.  I just have to get used to this Teen Titans Go like feel of the character.  

7/10