Starfire #3 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti
Art By: Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 12, 2015

Murder, Monsters and Grocery Shopping

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Starfire trying to find a life for herself has just been riddled with problems.  I know that moving and starting someplace new always has it's tribulations, but goddamn Starfire can't catch a break.  After finding a place to live, a hurricane comes and sweeps it away and if that wasn't bad enough, we also saw some sort of underworld monster come to the surface and that's never a good thing.  The only positive that seems to have come from heading down to Key West is that Kori seems to have really found a friend in the local Sheriff, Stella Gomez and I'm sure once her brother gets over his death wish because he lost his love years ago, he'll be on board with the friend thing too....... or maybe more.  Anyway, let's head back down to the Florida Keys and see what else could possibly go wrong with Starfire's move.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with a cruise ship picking a shipwrecked man named Soren Hook up and if that name wasn't enough for you to start pointing at the page and yelling "bad guy!", then you'll eventually get there when he starts using mind powers on the crew and killing them........ BAD GUY!  Back on land, Starfire is getting Stella and Sol's house back in order after the hurricane.....mostly pulling lawn gnomes out of the pool, but help is help and we find out that since Starfire's home was lost due to the storm, Stella has offered to let Kori stay in her and Sol's guesthouse.....which seems like it might have originally been meant for Sol and his dead girlfriend, so obviously he isn't too hip on the idea of someone staying there.  After Sol takes off, Kori figures it's a good time to eat some baking soda........ and when she realizes that eating baking soda is terrible, she heads off to the market to get some food and to continue her adventures in misunderstandings.  I really like the side characters in this book and I'm even intrigued by this new development with Soren Hook, but at this point it seems that the biggest problem in this book is Starfire herself.  The book seems to be driven solely on the hope that people will continue to find her naivety hilarious and endearing when to me it just comes off frustrating because I've seen her in Red Hood and The Outlaws, living on Earth and interacting with humans so it shouldn't be as difficult as she makes it out to be here.

So after having another "hilarious" misunderstanding at the grocery store on how to eat watermelon, the story picks up as the murder-y-est cruise ship that you've ever seen slams into the dock and Stella Gomez makes her way to the scene, which she gets to rather fast since Starfire decides to fly her there.......... and somehow changed her clothes........ if Starfire went home to change then Stella could have totally gotten to the docks quicker without her.  On board the ship, they find the whole crew murdered except for what I think is called a "cabin boy" and Stella tells Starfire that she needs her to leave so she can do her job and to meet her at a local restaurant because it will be safer............ boy is Stella ever wrong.  

In the end, Starfire begins learning that men want sex when they buy you a drink and we learn that the underworld monster that surfaced in the previous issue is actually after a waitress at the restaurant instead of our alien princess.  Why the waitress?  Well, it looks like she's more than she seems when she tears her clothes away to reveal a superhero costume and that her name is Atlee..... meaning that we just had our introduction to this continuity's Terra.  I actually found this part really funny because before the monster showed up, Atlee was telling Starfire that it took her awhile to figure out how things worked as well and when Starfire asked where she was from, Atlee responded "The south, the very very south".  I know it's stupid, but when she said that I just thought of the running joke from Little Nicky, where he says that he's from the deep south and starts laughing his creepy laugh.  That just always makes me giggle is all........ maybe that's just me.......  Atlee's from deep within the Earth is all I'm trying to say.  Hopefully these two will be able to take on the monster because we find out that if you hit it, it only gets stronger and with Starfire's inability to understand anything around her, this might take awhile.

That's it for this issue of Starfire and all I want to do is shake Starfire and scream "Understand Things!" at her.  That might be harsh, but this whole series seems to be based around her inability to learn and it's becoming very frustrating.  That's a shame too because I really enjoy every other character in this book and am really looking forward to what Soren Hook and Atlee will bring to this series.  Hopefully Starfire begins wising up and starts acting like she's been on this planet for awhile, like we know she has.  Luckily, the art in this book is fantastic and even though I'm annoyed beyond belief with our title character, I love looking at her and everything else in this book thanks to the art team.  

Bits and Pieces:

Starfire continues to annoy with her naivety, but the story keeps getting better and better...... it's a very odd feeling when you don't like the main character, but love everything else.  We've got new and interesting characters, bad ass new developments in the story and beautiful art throughout this issue...... I just can't stand Starfire though.  Maybe it's not that big a deal for everyone else and if that's the case, then this is a fantastic issue, but if Kori's misunderstandings are beginning to get on your nerves, then this will simply continue your frustrations.

6.5/10