If you've been waiting all your life for a comic that's a cross between Flaming Carrot and Night Thrasher - good news!  Your prayers have been answered. 

For those of you who think that's the most horrid idea imaginable, just ignore me.  Street Angel is really good, so buy it anyway.  Here's the official character description:

"Jesse Sanchez is an orphan raised by the streets. In an unforgiving world overrun with poverty, drug abuse, nepotism and ninjas, Sanchez fights for the poor, the forgotten, and whenever possible, for food. Armed only with her phat skateboarding skills, martial artistry and tricked out deck, she's known to criminals as Street Angel!"

Which kind of gives you the feel of the thing.  Street Angel is a street-level, teenage skateboarding heroine.  In a city overrun with ninjas.  Really stupid ninjas.  And she fights supervillains who want to reunite Pangea in order to... well, it'd make them really powerful.  Somehow.  Just don't ask.  It's not that kind of book.

Instead, Street Angel is a mix of deadpan but affectionate superhero pastiche, mild absurdity (Jesse insisting on talking through a megaphone for a whole scene, for no reason whatsoever, or Dr Pangea berating his ninja henchmen for failure to wear their name badges) and just plain Cool Stuff (ninjas and skateboarding).  It's completely ridiculous, but creators Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca get the balance right where Street Angel is genuinely cool in her own right and not just a vehicle for jokes at the expense of other people.

Oh, and that big fight scene at the end is fantastic.

Great fun, and definitely worth checking out.  Especially if you're in that crucial Carrot/Thrasher crossover demographic.

Rating: A

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