2023 EDIT:
Reread: Lady pirates. Lady pirate crew. What's not to love? (Even though it is only an introductory setup comic.)
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
This is the spinoff of the 'Princeless' comic series, which stars the teenage POC adventurer princess Adrienne, and it is blatantly, unabashedly feminist. It's as feminist as 'Bitch Planet' (Kelly Sue DeConnick even makes an artful appearance here, along with G. Willow Wilson and Marjorie Liu), if not more so. MRAs, mansplaining, misogynistic trolling, the "fake geek girls/pirate girls" male fabrication, the dangerous epidemic of so-called emasculation, the "friend zone", and the dehumanization of activists of social justice; these are all in this comic and are given the blunt kicking up the backside they deserve. The importance of representation to children is snuck in too.
And it is effing glorious.
An all-female pirate crew - what a wonderful idea! None of the same old boring, male-oriented stories to be discovered here: This small comic book is a map to its own buried treasure!
Book 1 of 'Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess' serves as an introduction; the start of a quest (revenge against men taking from a woman what's rightfully hers) that's to come. It's an excellent intro to each awesomely dynamic, memorable character; not just the pirate princess Raven Xingtao, an Asian LBGTQ female lead, reminiscent of Disney's 'Mulan'. Each lady and future member of Raven's crew is so diverse and smart and brave in her own way that I want to praise their creation to the heavens. Cookie, Raven's old pirate friend, is pretty much the only three-dimensional male character, but he's as important as everyone else to Raven's development, so it's good. The story is also surprisingly multilayered and touching.
The comic only gets four stars from me because of, oddly enough, Raven herself. She isn't a captain yet, and she is getting started on her own individual adventures away from Adrienne. But she's largely ineffectual in a story that's about her. She gets beaten up a lot of the time, and is even knocked unconscious at the end of the first issue - a tired cliché. The first few pages are a flashback, showing Raven being a master hand with the bow and arrow - she's known as the "Black Arrow" among pirates and the rich and robbed. But for the rest of the book she never picks up a bow. Raven is more awkward and easily-fooled than a badass pirate seeking revenge. She doesn't even come up with any plans near the end of her recruitment of female pirates, and is mostly in the sidelines while the important action is happening. Granted, the climax shows how brilliant Raven's childhood friend, Ximena the navigator, is - with whom she has a complicated past and is clearly secretly in love with. The wide range of fully-realised female characters in this epic do potentially overshadow the main lead girl herself. Hopefully Raven receives her due quickly in future issues.
'Princeless: Raven the pirate Princess Book 1: Captain Raven and the All-Girl Pirate Crew' - it's exactly what you'd expect from a title like that, and from Jeremy Whitley and the diverse fantasy-subversion world he created with the 'Princeless' series.
No heterosexual romances here. It is full of nonstop girl power action, and even some important life lessons. Above all, it's bloody fun. Just my cup of tea!
Final Score: 4/5
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