Wrestling To Save The World With GLOW Summer Special #1
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Ruth, Debbie, and the Toxic Twins are trying to set up a big tagteam show for GLOW this week. The match is a classic US vs. USSR setup with the Toxic Twins being split between the two warring sides, and Ruth wants it to end with a glitter bomb. Plus, Debbie’s daughter is going to be there for the match, as Sam and Bash have arranged a class field trip to the match. Plus, Bash decides that it needs to take place in a GLOWdome. Debbie’s daughter is feeling depressed about the idea of nuclear annihilation after watching The Day After, so hopefully the GLOWs can cheer her and her class up.
The GLOW Summer Special #1 spotlights the ladies putting together a wrestling match metaphor for nuclear annihilation, but it may ring on deaf ears by the time showtime arrives.
It does a good job of drawing on the 1980’s setting with the at-the-time concern that the world was about to end in nuclear fire. The wrestling version of the story is deliberately corny, as is to be expected.
The drama comes in when Ruth and Debbie try to cheer up the class by putting together a metaphor for nuclear disarmament. This is also where the comic ratchets up the cheesiness factor a good bit and in a manner that seems a little less deliberate. The comic even ends on Sam telling Debbie’s daughter that it’s the older generation’s hope that the younger can actually accomplish that disarmament. The world is still waiting on that one.
Lisa Sterle’s artwork does justice to the GLOW girls. The costumes look good, the ladies are expressive and dynamic, and the glitter bomb looks pretty damn cool when it goes off. Triona Farrell’s color work is explosive and lively, and she does a damn good job of giving the book a lot more energy and vibrance.
GLOW Summer Special #1 is a fun if corny return to the GLOW world. The message is good even if the delivery is very cheesy. That said, the comic is entertaining enough to get away with it, and I can give it a recommendation. Feel free to pick it up.
GLOW Summer Special #1 comes to us from writer Devin Grayson, artist and cover artist Lisa Sterle, color artist Triona Farrell, and letterer Christa Miesner.
Final Score: 6.5/10
