Kirsty Capes reviews Tank Girl: Two Girls One Tank #1…
Fresh off the back of their latest calamitous chapter comes this shiny new Tank Girl tale from series creator, Alan Martin and artist extraordinaire, Brett Parson! Expect a healthy dose of delirium and plenty of ball-crunching action in this high-octane crosscountry skirmish that asks the question: is this world really big enough for two Tank Girls?! Strap yourself in, folks; It’s gonna be one helluva ride!
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Tank Girl: Two Girls One Tank #1
Artistically, Two Girls One Tank is something of a departure from previous titles. Brett Parson, the artist behind the latest installment – a four-part miniseries – in the saga of Australia’s most nefarious outlaw, employs clean lines and stylistic choices which are far more safe compared to previous artists who have worked on Tank Girl. It’s easy to understand why series co-creator Alan Martin chose him, though. A quick browse through Parson’s Instagram feed reveals him as a long-time Tank Girl fan, and his illustrations are both chaotic and almost pedantically lined. The art style and textures make for a visually stunning, if a little more mainstream effort than what the Tank Girl fandom might be used to.
Two Girls One Tank sees Tank Girl in trouble yet again, when she discovers that her eponymous tank has been ‘lost’ in the Outback, after Booga and Barney fell asleep and ‘misplaced’ it. In Sydney, we get a different side of the story when art dealer Magnolia Jones comes across the tank at her gallery, which according to her assistant (the fabulously-named Rob Roy Fingerhead) says was obtained after a ‘dumbass kangaroo’ lost it in a game of cards. As Tank Girl gears up to rob a convoy of vehicles loaded with dollar bills, Magnolia discovers an affinity with the tank. Overnight, she shaves her head, tankjacks the tank, and escapes into the wilderness as a reborn secondary Tank Girl. Thus, Magnolia is the second ‘girl’ of Two Girls One Tank.
Two Girls One Tank has a much more cohesive storyline compared to what many fans will love as the original comics, illustrated by Jamie Hewlett who later went on to found the band Gorillaz. While older Tank Girl comics were laced with obscene and bizarre storylines with no real trajectory, meta narratives which consistently broke the fourth wall, and hallucinogenic trips where boring old things like plot and character evaporated into thin air, Two Girls One Tank seems to suggest a calmer, more mature Tank Girl, albeit still with all the things we love her for: her obscene mouth, quick wit and generally charming grotesqueness. Barney is equally fun, especially in the opening panels where she reclines by a campfire, naked but for her knickers, in true Barney fashion. Magnolia is an intriguing addition to the clan, and I’m looking forward to see her develop in the next three issues of this series.
The action is equally as fun, as Tank Girl and Barney attempt to commandeer passing vehicles by acting as damsels in distress, only they are inexplicably in their underwear and on rollerskates. Tank Girl is one of those rare things in pop culture that sexualises its female characters in a way that empowers them instead of demeaning them; it does away with stereotypes of the male gaze and creates truly unique, brash and hilarious women who literally don’t give a fuck what you or anyone else thinks. Tank Girl has been doing this since the eighties, and it’s been celebrated the world over for gifting girls everywhere with such a powerful and ferocious feminist icon. Even more impressive that it does this so successfully, when one considers that it was created by two men in an English coast town almost thirty years ago.
Fans will be pleased to catch glimpses of Jet Girl and Sub Girl, albeit captured in photographs rather than physically appearing in the story. All in all, Two Girls One Tank has all the things you love about Tank Girl in it, but it also hints at a new era for Tank Girl, too. It definitely as something to offer old fans, and is a watertight introduction for younger generations who aren’t familiar with the history of the character. Two Girls One Tank has a markedly different feel to it compared to the older comics. But I think that’s a good thing for the canon. As the world evolves, Tank Girl and her shit-eating, no-fucks-giving-philosophy ought to evolve too. We’ve come a long way since Thatcher.
Rating: 9/10
Kirsty Capes – Follow me on Twitter
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Originally published May 18, 2016. Updated November 14, 2019.
