Sidekick Girl
Original review author: SinisterTwist
Webcomic name: Sidekick Girl
Author: Erika and Lore
Start Date May 2007
End Date Ongoing
Genre Superhero, Parody
Reviewer's opinion: 3.4 Stars
Positives: Interesting premise, decent artwork
Negatives: At times it just seems to lack a little punch

Story and Plot

Sidekick Girl's main plot follows the character of Valerie Upton, a woman who has wanted to be a superhero since she was young. Unfortunately in order to be a hero, you have to go through a thorough qualification process. Not only do you have to do the proper red tape, but you also have to fulfill certain… standards. Since Valerie lacks both the height and bust of the superheroine requirements, she was immediately placed in the sidekick range.

Because Valerie's super power is that she's near impossible to kill (but can still feel tons of pain), she's assigned to Illumina- a superhero who has an unfortunate habit of killing off her sidekicks accidentally. Frustrated yet still wanting to fight crime, Valerie agrees to become Illumina's sidekick as well as personal keeper.

Art review

The art in this is pretty decent, with nice colors and skill. It's just that the artwork just seems to lack something that I can't quite put my finger on. It's just sort of rough when you compare it to the artwork you might see in comic books (indie & non-indie). It just looks like the author needs to practice their art skills a little more. It isn't bad, just very, very green.

Writing review

The writing is one of the strongest point of the comic. The writing team tries not to go slapstick or too over the top, but they make it very clear that this is meant to be a parody. The parodies are some of the strongest parts of the comic, but it is when they try to make the switch to the action parts and/or make it more serious that it just doesn't seem to fit all that well together. This is actually a pretty common problem with many forms of media (movies, comics, books, etc) that try to put comedy and action together, so it isn't necessarily a sign that the strip is bad.

Conclusion

Overall, this isn't a bad strip. It has a lot of promise that for the most part, it delivers. It's just that at times it just seems to be a little overly ambitious for what it is trying to do. This has a lot of potential to become a fan favorite if it ever gets beyond its niche audience. The main flaw of the comic just seems that the authors are just a little green and the strip hasn't really had a chance to really mature. It's been going on since 2007, but it only really updates on Wednesdays so they've just barely gone past the 150 mark with their strips. While that might seem to be a lot to some people, it isn't really enough to more than set up the general premise of the comic and introduce the basic characters (main and secondary), as well as one of the major conflicts.

There's hope that eventually as the comic matures it will work out the rough spots. As it is now, it is good but doesn't really seem like it will catch on with all audiences.

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