100 Girls

100 Girls #Complete

by Adam Gallardo, Todd Demong (Illustrator)

Adopted, supersmart, and bumped up two grades -- it's no wonder Sylvia's always felt different. But recently she's been going through some major physical changes, and they're not of the typical teenager kind.

Sylvia has no idea why she can move like a gymnast and punch like a heavyweight, and the strange nightmares she's been having are completely freaking her out. But there are people who have the answers she's looking for, and Sylvia's determined to find them.

Trouble is, they've already found her....

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Fantasy, Ebooks

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2008

About the author

Adam Gallardo is a writer who lives and works in Oregon. Mostly known for writing comics (Star Wars: Infinities -- Return of the Jedi, 100 Girls and Gear School volumes one & two), his debut YA novel, Zomburbia, is out now from Kensington. The sequel, Zombified, will be ublished in January 2015.

Reviews

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

File under: Couldn't put it down. Really...I fell asleep reading it and then I woke up this morning and finished it.
The story is really nothing terribly new...girl realizes she's different, then discovers she's a superhuman clone, and now she's on a quest ...etc but this story worked really well with the artwork (which is so graphic I sometimes winced) and I liked the dialogue as well. And the characters are well developed and likable (or unlikable as the case may be). I don't think a story has to be completely 100% unique to be fresh. If I had the sequel with me this morning I would have been late to work..can't wait for it!

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia has always felt different than other girls her age - than anyone, really, with her skipped grades and sudden strength - but when she learns that she is part of a strange experiment, she must head out to seek answers before the people who did this to her make the last move. Gallardo will keep teens entertained with this intruging thriller that keeps the questions coming. How much has been kept from her all these years?

[Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia Mark is just another a thirteen year-old girl who feels separated from her peers. It is more than the fact that she has been moved up two grades and is sometimes freakishly strong -- she also feels incomplete and she has weird dreams night after night that seem to be harbingers of something dark. What Sylvia doesn't know is that she's just one of one hundred girls bred as part of a genetics experiment that gives normal humans extraordinary powers. Thirteen years ago, four girls were kidnapped and sent to families around the country to be raised and Sylvia is determined to find out why...

The first four issues of 100 Girls have been collected in the new volume The First Girl, which introduces the protagonist, Sylvia Mark. Sylvia is one of a hundred super-powered female clones -- each with their own unique power -- and one of a handful who were kidnapped from the laboratory where they were created. After a school tussle goes very badly indeed, thanks to Sylvia's super-strength, she goes on the run, pursued by the agents of the scientists who created her.

Todd Demong's artwork in 100 Girls is particularly good; stylized and angular, with little exaggerations that enhance the characters' expressiveness. There's nothing muddy or hard to follow, and the action is well-paced. It's also refreshing to see teenage characters that don't look like supermodels; the Sylvia and the other Girls are a little gawky, a little plain, and rough around the edges, like most thirteen-year-olds.

The writing is solid as well; the dialogue is crisp and often funny. Sylvia is an engaging -- if precocious at times -- thirteen-year-old; if there's any complaint about her characterization, it's that she adapts a little too quickly to the sudden bursts of ultraviolence that interrupt her previously staid (by adolescent standards, anyway) life. She is exceptional, of course, but she doesn't seem quite as shaken by, say, breaking the necks of mutant hounds as a suburban girl with a hitherto average upbringing might be.

Then again, we are operating in the Girls Kicking Ass genre, and part of that is accepting that our heroine is going to start pounding the bad guys sooner rather than later. It does help that Sylvia is a fun character to follow around; her supporting cast is also strong. Especially notable is the creator of the Girls, Dr. Tabitha Carver, who could have easily been a cardboard Evil Scientist; in her own way, she loves the Girls, and is trying to do what she thinks is right. She's drawn as an attractive femme d'un certain age, a rarity indeed in most SF/superpower comics.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I picked up at as a freebie at a meeting last week and after I got it back to my office, I wasn't sure if I would like it because initially I didn't care for the artwork but it didn't take me long to get immersed in the story and I couldn't put it down! This story revolves around cloned girls who have special skills and a very strong bond among them!

[Gavin]

I only read the first 10 pages of Vol. 2, as a free preview from Comixology...

Seemed like an interesting premise, 100 girls are all advanced genetic experiments, and this follows one of those girls, Sylvia, as she begins to uncover why she has nightmares all the time, and is super-atheltic, smart, and advanced for her age...

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

WoW! An exciting Graphic Novel about scientifically and genetically modifying then “empowering” young women. Triggers for violence, partial nudity, death

[Radwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, the concept is intriguing, but it was cut short with no enough explanation and a promise with a 2nd volume, but there's nothing.

We follow Sylvia, who discovers she's a clone and that she's connected to all of her other clones via dreams, and each one of them has some kind of a superpower. it's all good, but we never get any answers to who these clones are? who made them and for what purpose (we get half answers to these questions, but still)? also, what's the deal with the x-men agents following them? what was the purpose of those?

[Dakota Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Fun, engaging,
mixed with some spooky sci-fi. The art style is definitely unique. Maybe could have been flushed out a little bit more story line of who these government people are and what they want and what these projects are etc but regardless of not necessarily answering these questions you can an interesting story that definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.

[Agent Washington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this comic quite a number of times now, and though I've yet to understand what the fuck exactly is happening in this comic, something about it keeps me coming back to it. The art style is strange, but the flow of some of the sequences are top notch. The story tends to jump around, but there's enough mystery to keep me coming back. If there's a second book, I'd like to read it.

[8tailfox · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting premise but it doesn't show any signs of a sequel and how do you continue the story if your main character has the powers of a God.
The answer is you don't, this is a just an ok stand alone story.

[Alec Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, and told well enough, but it's totally just an X-Men thing pretending not to be X-Men.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

DPL hoopla

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Lauren Ashley for TeensReadToo.com

Written in the form of a comic book, 100 GIRLS was a very quick read. Sylvia was adopted and even skipped a couple of grades. But those are not the main reasons Sylvia is different from her fellow classmates: she's super-strong and could beat up someone twice her size!

The story starts out with Sylvia having strange dreams of girls in tubes calling out to her. Later that day, she's suspended for getting into a fight and she overhears her parents speculating about her strange behavior. Feeling like they no longer want her, Sylvia sneaks out and comes upon a strange person...herself.

The book goes back and forth between various perspectives, including Sylvia and her new cohorts as well as a group of people that seem to know much more about Sylvia and her newfound powers then Sylvia does.

100 GIRLS, as I said, was a very quick read. I'm not a big comic reader, so reading a book set up in this way was definitely interesting, allowing the story to be seen a lot more then heard. For awhile, I was pretty confused, but so was Sylvia, so it wasn't something I worried about too much. I just continued to read. As the book goes on, you slowly start to unravel this mystery and become more intrigued with Sylvia. As of now, I'd say it's a satisfactory read and I'm highly interested in what happens next.

Reviewed by: Lauren Ashley

[Rowan · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Sylvia Mark starts manifesting super strength and agility, she has no explanation for it. To add to that, she keeps having terrifying nightmares. Not realizing her own strength, she accidentally breaks the arm of a mean girl who has been picking on her. Having to face suspension and realizing her foster parents' disappointment in her, she decides to run away from home. However, she ends up tangled in a failed kidnapping and meets a girl who looks just like her but with a different talent. As Sylvia continues on her adventure, she learns of a secret agency that may able to explain her strange powers. But can these people be trusted?

I'm not a fan of comics, so I wasn't sure what to expect while reading 100 Girls. The blood and gore was really distracting; I couldn't believe how many people Sylvia killed. Was it really necessary? For a thirteen year old, she is really strong in both personality and physique – too strong, in fact. Feminine strength should have been a redeeming quality, but Sylvia was too wild and murderous for me to like. The story also felt too rushed; it was at times confusing to read. Sometimes, I felt like I didn't even know what was going on. As harsh as it is, the antagonists of the story almost didn't seem like such bad guys compared to Sylvia.

As far as the story goes, I was shocked to learn that Sylvia had been designed to be the ultimate weapon along with ninety-nine other girls – well, that explains the violence.

[Sarah Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this thin graphic novel, Sylvia, like many teenagers, feels like freak. Her adoptive parents don’t understand her and she’s out of place at school, being two grades ahead. Unlike most teenagers, Sylvia actual is a freak, a genetic creation who was stolen by laboratory workers as a baby. She discovers she’s not alone after her unusual strength and agility create an incident at school. Soon she’s on the run from the people that created her while seeking out other girls who look like her but have different abilities. Sylvia’s body begins to absorb the beings of the other girls, resulting in a string of gross body shells left in random places. Meanwhile, the death count increases as men who appear to be from a similar project try to restrain the now literally multiple personality and multi-talented girl. She/they are determined to find and absorb the rest of their sisters, trapped in pods in the original laboratory from which they were taken.

It was well done, I just didn't enjoy it that much. Partly because I couldn't decide if I empathized with the girls or were horrified by them. I wasn't invested in the characters. It is a solid read-alike for the Marvel Runaways series, though the violence here is more disturbing.

[Angiebookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this online through the library's new ebook platform, TumbleBookCloud, and it was an entertaining short read. Sylvia is 13, smart enough to have skipped a couple grades, and adopted. She was never very athletic, but one day out of the blue, that changes. She can suddenly flip, jump, run, and fight like never before. After a fight at school and an argument with her parents, Sylvia decides to run away, but finds herself being followed. Using her newfound physical abilities, and unexpected help from a girl who looks just like her, she fends them off, but the danger is just beginning. Sylvia must find out who's after her and why, and also find and warn the other girls just like her who are in danger. There are a significant number of gritty fights in this book, so readers beware of blood and snot and body parts flying about. Other than that, anyone looking for a quick little adventure tale to get into will enjoy this book. The story was summed up at the end, but I wouldn't mind it if there were sequels, because not every piece of plot was tied up neatly in a bundle, and I like how the main character develops.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's where good stories come alive. It starts at the middle. No flashbacks, no "once upon a time", no preachy backstories. You kind of figure things out as you read along.

I am not sure if this comic was written for young adults or old adults. The dialogues are simplistic, they literally bleep out expletives with a "bleep" art box BUT there's also a love scene between adults (blech, the drawings looked like 50-year olds, real nasty sh*t haha), and it's very very violent. Cool! Haha.

Art-wise, the template for all the characters (whether male, female, young or old) are one and same. Each character's face looks a bit old and everyone has wide hips—including teenagers. Strange design call. The rest: lay-out of the panels, the colors, the action angles, the unique tone filters (for various sequences like inside the heroine's head or the different times of day) are all excellent.

The story's a rehash of most altered-human-with-superpowers stories but it's all fun. I'm wishing this had a sequel (does it?) or becomes a series. A real steal for Php50 (that's about a dollar) at the sale pile.

[Erin Forson · Rating 3 out of 5]

100 Girls
by Adam Gallardo
Facing puberty is excruciating, especially for grade-skipping, thirteen-year-old, adopted-genius Sylvia Mark who doesn't fit in at all her suburban high school. After a hallway brawl, Sylvia decides to run away and narrowly escapes capture by a sinister group of men-in-black types who materialize from a dark alley. I love the way Demong draws Sylvia--all short, hunched and awkward. Despite that her stylish hip-hugging pants and cropped T reflect the styles of today without being too smooth. As you read you can figure out the emotion in each character just by looking at the face. Demong is a master of human expression. The crisp, vivid inks in dark tones help make the story fast, and the ghoulish faces that sometimes appear aren't your average Halloween mask. I really liked the story line too, but volume two needs to advance the story a little more. I hope the story isn't going to have Sylvia meeting wtih 100 girls like her....that would get boring fast.

[Gbolahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially wrote an "angry" review here about 100 Girls cos I thought the artist and writer just left us out to dry on such a great story, purposely ignoring to answer the gazillions of questions they raised with the comic-book.
But I'm not angry any longer...I now understand they HAD TO stop drawing/writing the comic due to some circumstances...beyond their control. They'd actually initially planned it to be an ongoing series...
Like it happened with Virtuality...did you guys see the pilot episode? I initially thought it was a movie, was so angry at the way it ended until Wikipedia cleared up the issue for me...

I loved 100 Girls. I loved the quirky drawings. I saw the story going places...sure it was formula...but it was one formula I loved.
Hmmmmm...we could do a campaign for a revival of the series, huh...?



(read this on Kindle app in 2016)

[CJ - It's only a Paper Moon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good story, very interesting. Reminded me of something out of the X-Files crossed with Generation X and if a graphic novel can pull that off they've got me sold!

Sylvia is super strong, agile like a cat and going through those emotional and body changes that we call puberty. However, it doesn't help that she's adopted, confused by family, life, boys and why she can break someone's arm with a mere squeeze.

Sylvia runs away and that's when we see the broader picture of the 100 girls and the significance of both Sylvia's powers and why she needs to survive.

Just a slight warning though : It's labeled teen fiction and it suits the genre but I'd suggest, if gifting this, to give it a mature teen or an older teen merely for the violence and death.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast-paced, action-packed story of superpowers, genetic meddling, and finding out who you really are, complete with a lot - a lot! - of ass-kicking and limb-ripping. In the grand tradition of Buffy; the main character(s) is really young (13), but comes across as much older. A fun, if not particularly deep, story, and it's always good to see girl action-heroes drawn to look recognizably female without becoming all T-and-A (especially when they're supposed to be teenagers). The only romance here is between adults (which may, as the GLA review points out on the Amazon page, gross out actual teenagers), but it's also nice to have a female protagonist without a crush on anyone.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, but the entire book feels like volume 1 of a story for which there is no volume 2. So many questions remain unanswered by the end of the book that it is very frustrating, and it is not at all a self-contained work.
Apparently cloned girls each develop super powers, after having been stolen from a secret facility. Each girl has been raised in a separate place for a period of time which is unclear in the story. Why they weren't tracked down more quickly is also not clear in the story. In fact, many things are not clear in the story.
The action part is interesting, and the story was hard to put down, but by the end there just wasn't enough to it.

[Miss Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

whoa that sure was violent

like dang, i lost track of sophia's body count by the end of this volume

this is basically a book about a girl who suddenly discovers she has superpowers by way of accidentally breaking a girl's arm

also being chased by government secret agents. that was the second huge clue

so far it's pretty good tho i will admit to being slightly taken aback at sophia's willingness to murder the people after her

i understand self-defense but like. thirteen years old and apparently she is somehow just totally cool with killing people all over the place?

i have some concerns about her mental health rn, not gonna lie

2.5 stars

[Severa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not really into graphic novels and this is actually the first graphic novel I've ever finished and I have to say it was just ok. I like to read different things and book genres I'm not normally into, just so my mind isn't just focused on what I love to read. It's good to read something different for a change and at first I thought it was good but as I thought about it more it's just ok really.

[Emilia P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this!
I was like oh this illustration style is repetitive and the color is too bright, but it fit the mood and flowed appropriately (fistfights! sci-fi! soul-melding!) and I was like oh this is going to be a rip-off of Buffy what with the tough blonde girl and supernatural stuff. But no, it stuck to its totally weird little guns, and that made it a very pleasant, engaging read, if not the best comic ever.
Yeah!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it's an interesting idea. And I was definitely drawn in. It's done pretty well, although there are some bits of lazy story telling, where you're left thinking "ok, how did that character figure that out". But it's forgivable. My main issue is that the heroine is not endearing. I'm not really rooting for her. I think the series has some potential but it really depends on what they do next... They need some major character development with the heroine.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. A patron reccomended this one after I reccomended a bunch of comix for her so I had to check it out. Not bad. Sure, it's full of a bunch of well-worn superhero cliches, but the action was at a break-neck speed. I liked the main girl which helped. The drawings were nothing special, but I got hooked right away. The book finishes with an open ending. Not sure if there will be more, but I'd be into it.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia Mark is having nightmares and going through some changes that make her increasingly more unpopular at school. Soon she runs away and finds herself embroiled in a fast-paced adventure as she tries to stay a step ahead of the bad guys who are after her and her "sisters."

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting play on a not too unfamiliar theme of lab created human weapons. The interest is there for me to want to know what happened before this and what happens next. Good coloring and illustration.

[Firda Beka · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a graphic novel about cloned girls with super powers who lead a normal life until the corporation who created them decided to take them back against their will. Quite enjoyable and action-packed!