'The Final Girls' - created by a whole team of female comic book writers and artists - is like a 2020s feminist version of 'Watchmen', that tackles themes and topics such as rape culture and the MeToo movement head-on, but abridged to just 168 pages. I really wish it could have been longer, and the characters developed and explored more. But as it is, this comic is good at what it sets out to achieve. Something like it needs to exist.
This gritty, political little superhero indie comic delves into "female empowerment" in ways both overt, and nuanced and understated. It highlights how there is no true definition of the term; it is all about complex and flawed women - real women, powers or no powers, immortal beings or not - who have been hurt, damaged, used and abused often and in varying degrees of traumatic, devastating weight.It says: No matter the era, as long as the patriarchy rules over everything, it is impossible to be a woman. The (double) standards are too high. The hatred of them too great. There is no "acceptable" way for women to exist. For a woman to live her life however she damn well pleases. For herself.
A content warning for sexual assault, self-harm, and attempted suicide, is needed, if you decide to pick up 'The Final Girls'.
It acknowledges and shows how the patriarchy hurts men as well. It traps them. It stunts them. Stunts their growth - their emotional growth, their maturity. And their empathy.
As well as superheroes, the not-so-weird-and-implausible world of 'The Final Girls' contains vampires - there is a lesbian vampire, who is with the Asian, eyepatch-wearing, divorced bisexual lead heroine, whose power is absorbing people's emotions and hurt (that cuts deep) - and heroines who are from mythology and legends, and a heroine with a strong Scottish dialect (Doric, to be precise). The comic is also social media fab-and-fad - if you get my drift - in conjunction with its social commentary, and it includes the heroines' favourite playlists.
I praise 'The Final Girls' for its diversity in terms of race, sexualities, and body types. And for the majority of it being set in Scotland. I love Scotland and Scottish people! It is the Final Girls' get-together place, their safe space - one of which is at Falcon Hall, and the other is a pub, The Styx, at the Arse End of Nowhere.
I like that the women's comradery, and group and friendship support, as well as the fact that they were and still are a superhero team, is made clearer by the end, when it wasn't really developed at the beginning. Some things about the comic are confusing, and confusingly paced.
But you know what? Any comic nowadays that attempts to set right what so many lauded male comic writers (and male writers in general) have done hideously wrong in the past - in their stories and in their personal lives, and quotes - and who continue to be praised by the world for it, gets a huge thumbs up from me.
The MeToo movement simply means having abusers face the consequences of their actions. It is a decent, moral and common sense thing that sadly too many men will sink to any and all depths to desperately avoid. The long-overdue movement and rallying cry - that is heartbreakingly even more relevant than ever in 2024 - means at least trying to get these men to do the right thing, to see, and to think about and understand their victims' feelings... no matter how futile this may be, no matter how many mistakes and fuckups are made along the way in trying to do what is right - that is the heart and goal of 'The Final Girls'.
The Final Girls are heroes, and survivors.
They are not the final ones out.
But, er, are they all immortal? This is another confusing point that's left unaddressed.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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