written by Jeremy Whiteley
illustrated by Alti Firmansyah, Gurihiru
Jeremy Whiteley's second Unstoppable Wasp series comes to a close, this time with a compassionate look on the challenges of being a teenage girl, whether it's because you're struggling with bipolar disorder, having a hard time coming out as gay to your authoritarian parent, or being recruited by a supervillain organization to fight their battles for them.
Nadia still grapples with her bipolar disorder, but with the loving help of Jan, her therapist, and her friends, the indefatigable members of G.I.R.L., she comes to terms with her condition and realizes that she cannot simply "conquer" it like she does other challenges in her life. In the meantime, G.I.R.L. member Shay, who is now in a relationship with fellow G.I.R.L. member Ying, struggles to come out to her overbearing soap opera actress mom. Finally, the agents of A.I.M. strike again, but this time the agents of G.I.R.L. won't be such easy targets.
Whiteley's story is nicely compact and, like I said earlier, compassionate, but it's not terribly compelling stuff. For one thing, there's a rather anemic subplot involving Mockingbird and special guest star the Winter Soldier which feels like a half-hearted attempt to goose sales a bit (not that Bucky is much of a draw), and apart from Nadia's and Shay's plots, there isn't really all that much going on, which feels like a bit of a contrast to the first volume, which had a lot more going on.
I liked the art, even though Gurihiru took a break for the first two issues, as Indonesian artist Alti Firmansyah turns in work that is pretty consistent with the overall vibe of the book. I was glad to have Gurihiru back to close out the story, though. These two deserve some A-list work, in my opinion, especially since this book's come to an end.
6/10
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