A Gilmoran queen has abdicated her throne. Tradition dictates that a competition be held to decide who the next queen will be. The sole woman to survive the four challenges will be crowned the new queen. Ten women enter the contest. One leaves with the crown. The first challenge arrives in the first issue of writer/artist Frank Cho’s Fight Girls. Color comes to the page courtesy of Sabine Rich. It’s a simple dystopian sci-fi idea in the mold of Rollerball, The Running Man, The Hunger Games, and Contest of Champions. There isn’t a great deal of depth to the story, but there doesn’t need to be in the promising opening chapter of a five-part mini-series.

Ten enter the arena. They are introduced only by name, number, headshot, and place of origin. In five issues, they will meet ten challenges: trials by jungle, desert, water, and combat. The first trial begins, and immediately contestants begin to be eliminated. How many are left at the end of the first issue? That will become apparent by issue’s end. And by issue’s end, there is some concern by those in power that a low-born woman from a mining outpost has already gotten further than she should have...

The beauty in Cho’s script lies in his commitment to its simplicity. The basic premise is outlined in the text on the cover and in the first couple of pages. The no need to make things any more complicated than they need to be, so there’s no need for thought balloons. Simple dialogue punctuates written narration almost exclusively delivered by play-by-play commentators. Readers pick their favorites and see who wins. Think too much about who’s going to come out on top, and the conclusion might turn out to be kind of obvious, but Cho has delivered a solid first issue in which it’s pretty apparent that anyone COULD die. 

Cho’s art is beautiful. He’s put together a respectably impressive showcase for his art. Beautiful athletic women race through danger to try to come out on the other side and make it to the next challenge. The atmosphere of the jungle feels suitably immersive as the contestants run from various prehistoric predators as little camera drones watch on from a safe distance. Rich’s colors lend a lushness to the atmosphere of wild danger. The predators pounce from angles that keep moving throughout the issue. 

While this sort of thing HAS been tried before over the years, Cho’s approach to it is refreshingly simple. The dystopian future world in which it is set gradually bleeds in around the corners of the page. The clean lines, bright colors, and fast pace of the comic make it feel almost iconic right out of the gate in the series’ first issue. The test here for Cho is going to lie in keeping the remaining three challenges in four chapters of the series from being repetitious. He’s established a pretty tight format. If he veers too far from that format, it loses some of its purity. If he sticks too closely to it, it could get stale by the end of the second issue. 

Grade: A