Ultra: Seven Days

by The Luna Brothers

Having enjoyed Sword, and the first volume of Girls, I set out to gather up the rest of their oeuvre, starting with Ultra, their debut eight-issue mini-series.

Ultra depicts a week in the life of three super-powered women who work for Heroines Inc., a para-police/talent agency for superheroines (Heroes Inc. is their male-oriented brother company).  The three women get their fortune told by a cracked-out psychic one night, who, among other predictions, asserts that Pearl Penalosa, Ultra, will find true love within seven days.

This comic is basically a super-powered Sex and the City.  The three friends argue, sleep around, fight crime, and try to push Pearl into a happier life.  She thinks she finds the man that satisfies the prophecy (and her), but things go horribly wrong, and she becomes the centre of a tabloid sex scandal.

The comic is much funnier than I expected from the Luna Brothers (Sword did not have a lot of laughs).  There are many scenes built around some double entendre, and some very funny situations (my favourite being the scene where a white man who can shoot ink-like fluids out of his hands wants to be known as Blackman).  The book is also peppered with faux-ads to help drive home the level of celebrity our heroes have achieved, and each individual issue's cover is modeled on a different popular celebrity magazine.

This is an incredibly solid comic, especially if you consider that this was the first work that the Lunas had published.  Their art is as spectacular, and the writing is sharp and tight.  Recommended.