Starfire #6 Review and *SPOILERS*

Two Baddies For The Price of One

Written By: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti
Art By: Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: November 11, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Starfire has not been a book that I've really been a fan of because it comes off almost as a one trick pony, where I'm supposed to just be happy that it has a bunch of silly understandings, maybe a super villain battle if I've been a good boy and then I'm supposed to go about my day thinking that it's the best I've seen of Starfire in a long time........... Well, maybe it isn't that bad, but it sure comes off that way in my neurotic mind.  It's just not doing much for me because we're focusing on Kori acting like she's never interacted with a human before and on top of that, it's just a day in the life of, where she needs to pay the rent and get a job....... and maybe a boyfriend.  Besides for the boyfriend bit, I've been personally dealing with this story for decades and as someone who doesn't know shit about shit, maybe it's a little too close to home or maybe I read superhero books for something different than my normal life.  Anyway, in the previous issue we had Starfire meet that mind killer Soren Hook, but before it could get really interesting, the story moved on to Kori getting a job at Seaworld and making out with a dolphin.  Finally though, at the end of her day we got back to some Soren Hook stuff when we saw that Soren might have killed Starfire's friend Sol........ but that was the cliffhanger....... so yeah, not much going on.  Let's jump into this issue and see if the story gets interesting.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with a little flashback into Sol Gomez and that mysterious love that he lost before this series started........ Pretty much, all we get from this though is that her name was Maria and that like Sol, she too was involved with the Coast Guard.  Before we got too far into that story though, this issue shifted gears as it does and brings us back to where we left off last month with Starfire standing in front of Soren Hook while Sol lies on the ground, surrounded by red stuff........ which I'm still not sure if it's blood or if he just happened to spill his drink when he hit the ground.  Anyway, Starfire goes on the offensive and straight up almost drowns Soren in the pool while having flashes of Soren's past before Sol came to and got her to stop and began performing mouth to mouth.  Well, Sol winds up in the hospital and Soren ends up being kept under sedation until the police determine who his is exactly.  With all that behind us, I guess I was a good boy this week because we get an actual battle consisting of Starfire and a bounty hunter from space named Kragg, who plans on retrieving Kori for his employer.  

It's a no time for love Dr. Jones moment when Kori and Sol's date gets interrupted by this intergalactic big bad and for how much Kori whales on him, I'm pretty sure she's not happy about having her free time interrupted.  

Yeah, Kragg didn't know what he was getting himself into when he took on Kori's contract and I think it will be a long time before he gets to think about it because after Kori knocks him out, she throws him into his suspended animation chamber in his ship and program's it's autopilot to go far away from Tamaran, where Kori deciphered was Kragg's origin.  So yeah, this might be all we ever see of Kragg and that's certainly a messed up thing to do to a person, bounty hunter or not.  At least I can say that she didn't kill the guy and saved people from further threat and really, that's all I want from this book is for it to make Starfire a hero.  

In the end, the people of Key West watch in awe as a beautiful alien princess beats the holy hell out of another alien before sending him packing and Grayson on another stop of what seems to be his world tour........ since he keeps showing up in title after title, is surprised as hell to see Kori there.  I don't know if it's DC's thing to throw Grayson into every damn title there is right now or if this is a desperate ploy to get this title interesting, but what the hell, I'm in because I dig Grayson and I hope this leads to a little understanding about what history these two share in this continuity.

That's it for this issue of Starfire and even though I'm not really a fan of this series, this issue wasn't bad and I actually found myself liking it.  Yeah, we still had the silly misunderstandings and I'm not quite sure if Sol was bleeding or simply spilled his drink,  but the naivety was at a minimum here and I got Starfire taking on not one, but two bad guys in this story.  So yeah, I'm happy as hell.  The nonsense about day to day life was replaced with action and with Grayson being apart of the story, I'm actually excited about going into the next issue.  As always, the strongest thing about this title is the art and in case you haven't seen it before, just let me tell you that it's spectacular.  

Bits and Pieces:

This issue of Starfire actually surprised me with how little nonsense it threw into the story and how it seemed to rely more on the strength of the character and the past she's desperately trying to leave behind, which I hope continues from here on out because those are the type of stories that I'm interested in.  The art was spectacular as always and I see a shining light here, showing us what this series could become in the future.

7/10