Why are indie comic book guys always so behind the times? Like, there's a world of culture being born every minute--a world of innovative graphic culture, even, although it all seems to be online (why I sometimes review internet comics on LibraryThing)--and in sequential print the majors are producing some fantastic work, although less now than a few years ago, but you get down to this '90s sludge so quickly, of pseudo-hip hop manga and panty shots. Like, it's 2009 and I should really not even have the word "panty" available anymore, but look at our heroine "Della" here--you can't call 'em underwear. Actually, just the fact that her name is Della is progress--if this were the '90s for real she'd be called, like, "miko" or "kyoki" (not real names, FYI!). And I want to like this more than I do--there is an anticapitalist undercurrent to it that is congenial to me, and I like that dude obviously just desperately wanted to write a story where yakuza fight porn stars, and went for it. But on the other hand--it's yakuza fighting porn stars. And the anticapitalist thing comes across way too ranty, like Brian was raised by Chuck Palahniuk and Denis Leary, and what could be kind of a cool near-future pre-apocalyptic tension-world where a hot teen sticks it to the man and finds out who she is falls because the writer actually seems to misrecognize his sarcastic pastiche as awesomely sincere. ( )

I want to like this more than I do. It's too short for the material - Brian Wood could have done a lot more with this concept. It feels too rushed, and doesn't really seem to have a point. ( )