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Rival Angels: Rookie Year Volume 1
This is the story about four girls who battle for survival in the ring of women's wrestling, only for them to discover that surviving their battles with each other outside the ring is a completely different matter.
140 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 25, 2011
I've seen Rival Angels around the Internet a lot, and though the graphic inking style really appealed to me, women's wrestling (and indeed sports in general) is just not my thing. But I'd heard such good things about it from other webcomic creators that when I had the opportunity to pick up the physical Book One, I took it.
It grabbed my interest quickly. We've got four young rookies sharing a pad together as they struggle to prove their worth in the pro league, sometimes as a team and sometimes as opponents--and when they're all in such an aggressive sport, you can bet there's plenty going on in their home life. And the career has it's own politics, like any other job, which I found quite involving. And of course, there's the action-packed wrestling matches themselves. There's even contention between the two commentators, which kept the tension going strong in every panel.
As far as the art goes, it's full color, and though the anatomy is a little awkward sometimes, the staging of each panel is great. I appreciate the difficulty in illustrating all those fighting sequences, I was very impressed that the action not only looked convincing, but was drawn from many different angles to keep things interesting.
In the end, those women wrestlers won me over, and I'm gonna have to know what happens next!
It grabbed my interest quickly. We've got four young rookies sharing a pad together as they struggle to prove their worth in the pro league, sometimes as a team and sometimes as opponents--and when they're all in such an aggressive sport, you can bet there's plenty going on in their home life. And the career has it's own politics, like any other job, which I found quite involving. And of course, there's the action-packed wrestling matches themselves. There's even contention between the two commentators, which kept the tension going strong in every panel.
As far as the art goes, it's full color, and though the anatomy is a little awkward sometimes, the staging of each panel is great. I appreciate the difficulty in illustrating all those fighting sequences, I was very impressed that the action not only looked convincing, but was drawn from many different angles to keep things interesting.
In the end, those women wrestlers won me over, and I'm gonna have to know what happens next!
May 25, 2011
I rather liked the concept and the characters. I'm particularly fond of the friendship between Sun and Sabrina. Brooke has certainly shown her true colors. I wish Kristyn would show a little more personality but then against maybe she's the hidden weapon. Finally, I wish that the WWE divas were half as good and exciting to watch as these characters.
August 31, 2012
Trade paperback compilation of the Rival Angels webcomic. I picked this one up at Otakon and had a nice chat with creator Alan Evans, who is a dedicated pro wrestling fan and who has clearly channeled his love of wrestling into this comic.
Rival Angels tells the story of four rookies called up to the "big league" of womens' pro wrestling. The title of the comic is also the name of the fictional promotion, which is presented as comparable to the real-life WWE, complete with Monday night TV broadcasts and sellout crowds in huge arenas. We also get some glimpses of the other side of the sport: the developmental leagues where the competitors perform for sparse crowds in high school gyms and bingo halls.
The story focuses on Sabrina Mancini, called up early from the developmental territory and pushed as an up-and-coming babyface contender. This is all kayfabe storytelling, so the matches are depicted as real, competitive events. Sabrina faces the challenges of her first major-league matches while learning to live with three other rookie wrestlers that she is forced to share an apartment with as part of her contract.
Alan Evans knows his wrestling, and he also knows how to translate it into comic form. Matches are usually joined in mid-action so that the reader gets the match psychology and the big spots leading into the endgame without having to see every bit of feeling-out-process and restholds. The pacing works really well here, and the action feels authentic and exciting. As a wrestling fan, I was finding myself thinking that the major matches in this volume would be great on television.
The artwork has a couple of places where the rapid motion of high-flying moves is clearly difficult to depict as static drawings, but generally, the competitors look great and the moves look accurate.
I was less interested in some of the out-of-ring storylines. There is some intrigue and backstabbing going on behind the scenes that is interesting, but I would have liked to see better character development for the four roomates. The soap opera of the four different women living in close quarters never goes too far beyond shallow reality-TV style of interaction, and the characters engage in pretty stereotypical party-girl behavior outside of the ring.
Hopefully the character development will improve to match the excellent wrestling storylines as the series moves on.
Rival Angels tells the story of four rookies called up to the "big league" of womens' pro wrestling. The title of the comic is also the name of the fictional promotion, which is presented as comparable to the real-life WWE, complete with Monday night TV broadcasts and sellout crowds in huge arenas. We also get some glimpses of the other side of the sport: the developmental leagues where the competitors perform for sparse crowds in high school gyms and bingo halls.
The story focuses on Sabrina Mancini, called up early from the developmental territory and pushed as an up-and-coming babyface contender. This is all kayfabe storytelling, so the matches are depicted as real, competitive events. Sabrina faces the challenges of her first major-league matches while learning to live with three other rookie wrestlers that she is forced to share an apartment with as part of her contract.
Alan Evans knows his wrestling, and he also knows how to translate it into comic form. Matches are usually joined in mid-action so that the reader gets the match psychology and the big spots leading into the endgame without having to see every bit of feeling-out-process and restholds. The pacing works really well here, and the action feels authentic and exciting. As a wrestling fan, I was finding myself thinking that the major matches in this volume would be great on television.
The artwork has a couple of places where the rapid motion of high-flying moves is clearly difficult to depict as static drawings, but generally, the competitors look great and the moves look accurate.
I was less interested in some of the out-of-ring storylines. There is some intrigue and backstabbing going on behind the scenes that is interesting, but I would have liked to see better character development for the four roomates. The soap opera of the four different women living in close quarters never goes too far beyond shallow reality-TV style of interaction, and the characters engage in pretty stereotypical party-girl behavior outside of the ring.
Hopefully the character development will improve to match the excellent wrestling storylines as the series moves on.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews