I feel nostalgia for stories about transforming heroes. Not simply people who put on a costume and play the role, but the ones who have the costume within and perform a little ritual and sequence each time the costume comes out. These series with their henshins, magical girls, and motorcycle fighters captures a specific wonder that’s hard to translate to other genres. It’s one of the reasons I had covered the first issue of Flavor Girls by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky and Eros de Santiago years ago and why I’ve finally gotten back to the rest of the series so many years later.

From what we had seen nearly three years ago, a large ship was hanging above the Earth’s atmosphere, aliens had invaded, and the titular Flavor Girls were tasked with saving what they can. Sara, the newest member, is struggling to acclimate. But that kind of struggle just means we get to see a training montage and the slow building up of Sara as she’s trained by her fellow Flavor Girls—Naoko, Camille, and V—before beginning her first real fight against the invading armies of the Agartha. But even with all of the training and discovering her new pineapple-adjacent powers, the force against them is simply too much. Their only saving grace is Irina, one of the first humans to make contact with the aliens and the one human ally they have.

Despite being only three issues, this isn’t a rushed series. It takes its time to unfold more of its world and characters as we need to know them. We’re very much in Sara’s shoes learning more about the Mother Tree, the Agartha, and the politics that keep both Earth and the invading force running. That pace, though, is what makes these three issues feel like the first arc of a longer work—evidenced by the new series, Flavor Girls: Return to the Mothership releasing earlier last month—but still like there’s enough to stand on its own. And when telling longer stories with longer schedules, letting one portion of the story feel complete helps to maintain that interest over time. We’ve seen it with series like Briar in the past and if this is how we can get long-running series without writers and illustrators feeling that continual pressure to put something out, then that just helps to keep the industry healthy.

A series about heroes coming together to push back against a threat bigger than themselves always feel prescient. Even more so now. But also seeing someone who never thought of themselves as a hero stepping into the role makes us believe that we could do the same. Even if fighting back feels like magic, Flavor Girls lets us know that fighting back in any way is still good when faced with some inexplicable and evil. With support and a bit of tenacity, we find ways to punch back even when we’re scared. 

Get excited. Get fighting.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, & 651) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.