Comics: Barbarella #6 - Reviewed

Created by Jean-Claude Forest and first premiering in the French V Magazine in 1962, Barbarella was one of the first adult or pornographic comic books. The character Barbarella would have various sci-fi space adventures that would eventually involve some type of sexual act. Dino De Laurentiis purchased the film rights to the comic and Barbarella was released in 1968, directed by Roger Vadim and starring Jane Fonda. While it was generally praised for its strong visual style and cinematography, most agreed that the story was very week.It is now considered a cult classic. Many attempts and adaptations have failed, up until the new Barbarella series from Dynamite Entertainment.

Issue 6 continues a story arc that saw Barbarella heading out to Van Neumann's World in the previous issue. R.U.S.T (Radically Unstable Space Time) has been discovered there, which is an extremely valuable supra-dimensional plasma that in a properly contained state is used to halt and reverse temporal flow or to create dimensional frames that can manipulate time. At the end of issue 5, Barbarella and the mathematician Vossamin escaped from a family of violent prospectors, into a time shifting spherical field of R.U.S.T. Now, they must try to figure out what time and what place they are trapped in, evading the prospecting family and other forms of danger in this unpredictable world.

Mike Carey is once gain the writer for this issue and pieced together a plot that takes the California gold rush theme and blends it with time travel and a fantasy world, almost like prehistoric conditions or Jurassic Park. Barbarella's sexuality surprisingly doesn't end up playing into the story at all in this issue, making it two issues in a role where that aspect of her character is only casually mentioned. The story has become far more interesting as it continues, focusing on time travel and worlds where anything and everything may happen. The ending has me looking forward to seeing what will happen next.

Kenan Yar is the artist once again and the art looks way better than it did in the previous issue. I enjoyed his artwork in issues 1-3, which seemed to resemble the '70s era look and tone of the character. Some of the problems in issue 5 may have dealt with a world and characters that just weren't going to look very interesting or appealing. This issue resolves most of those problems as much of story is devoted to Barbarella and encountering beautiful and dangerous environments and creatures. Those environments appear to compliment Yar's style, who does a fine job delivering a detailed and imaginative world that begs to be explored further.

Barbarella #6 gets the series back on track, as the story and art come together to produce a fairly interesting sci-fi tale. 

-RV