Review by Frank Plowright

The Gilmoran Empire requires a new queen, and is remarkably democratic in selecting ten women to compete in a series of dangerous televised challenges with the winner earning the ultimate prize.

We’re not often treated to as much as 120 pages of Frank Cho art any form these days, which alone renders Fight Girls something to be anticipated. What Cho enjoys is drawing attractive, athletic women, and the set-up ticks that box from the start. Given the premise, those not aware of Cho’s back catalogue should be assured that his art presents athleticism without sleaze. Setting the challenges in different environments throws up a variety of threats, and if we take Cho’s presentation of beautiful women for granted, it’s the threats that impress most, most of them some form of imaginative alien life.

As the story continues it appears one contestant is particularly well informed about the possible dangers awaiting them, and Xandra Blackwater is also a subject of interest to a pair of investigators. Their progress provides a counterpart to the extreme sporting activities.

There’s a good shock right at the start, after which it’s only minor surprises until the final chapter as Cho’s not asking anyone to strain their brain figuring out mysteries. He’s asking you admire the art and the imagination, and he saves the greatest monster for the final chapter in a deliberately stomach-turning scene that’s been well planned via misdirection.

Fight Girls supplies what the title promises along with a final chapter making sense of the few unresolved issues, and tidying everything up neatly. It’s fun, fun, fun.