Olson, Daniel J. & Niehaus, AJ – Super Maxi-Pad Girl #1

May 2, 2010

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Super Maxi-Pad Girl #1

I have to be honest here: I really didn’t expect to like this one.  About the best I was hoping for was that it would be a funny concept for a bit, then it would get slowly beaten to death during the course of the comic, and that would be it.  I was, and not for the first time, completely wrong.  Things start off with a young girl coming home crying to her mother after she unexpectedly bled in her pants at school. This mother went on to tell the tale of Super Maxi-Pad Girl and her adventures against Bloating, Cramps and The Period.  While Super Maxi-Pad Girl is effective against The Period, two new heroes have to be introduced for the other problems: Pidol and Mamprin.  The day is saved and things are calm until the next adventure, which involves new villains: Migraine and Acne.  The heroes also get new members, such as the Reusable Menstrual Cup, the Preventative Ovulation Pill and Washable Cotton Maxi-Pad, or Eco-Pad.  Things are trickier this time around, as the villains have released a number of monkeys to eat all the bananas in the city, severely lowering the potassium intake, which leads to the creation of the Mega-Period.  As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a final, shorter adventure starring a giantess on her period and Thor.  As for any complaints from the ladies about this comic, and there probably will be a few, Daniel addresses them in the strip I sampled below.  Not sure if that will fix everything, but I thought it was a smart way to address it: show himself as more than a bit clueless about the whole thing but with good intentions.  If you’re thinking that this all sounds remarkably stupid, all I can say is that you have to read this to learn otherwise.  As a concept it’s bound to sound stupid, but the dialogue is never less than mildly funny (and often hilarious), the art doesn’t need to be great with the simple natures of the characters but it’s plenty good enough, and there were laughs to be found all over the place.  I can’t say that a Super Maxi-Pad Girl #2 would be great, but this one was so good that I actually think he’d have a shot at making it great, which I couldn’t have said before I actually read this.  Oh, and one disclaimer: obviously, if you’re completely unable to see any humor in “that time of the month” or anything associated with it, it’s best to stay away.  As it is, however, a fact of life, why not have a little fun with it?  $4

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