Jonas reviewed Eternity Girl by Magdalene Visaggio
How do you end your suffering when you're immortal or Transition is better than destruction. No holds barred postmodern superhero metafiction. Also, it's great!
5 stars
Content warning depression, suicide, body dysmorphia
Eternity Girl is a comic written by Magdalene Visaggio, drawn by Sonny Liew, colored by Chris Chuckry, and lettered by Todd Klein. It was published as a mini-series in DC’s imprint Young Animal in 2018, and was nominated for an Eisner Award 2019 as best limited series. The story follows the titular Eternity Girl, also named Caroline Sharp and Formless Girl and Chrysalis in various incarnations of her fictional comic book history. Eternity Girl has shape-shifting abilities, but is losing control over her powers. After an incident at her agency she is put on leave. Without her job to provide her with reasons to exist, she spirals into depression and suicide thoughts. Her attempts to kill herself remain unsuccessful because of her immortality. But then her nemesis Madame Atom shows up, offering Eternity Girl a way out of her existential suffering. But it means destroying the whole universe. On the human side, Caroline’s friend Dani tries to be there for her. On the side of cosmic forces of order and chaos, Lord Crash attempts to save the world. All Eternity Girl wants is a way to end herself. I really liked how the story rolled through overlapping realities. Dani is a great supporting character. Making mistakes, hurting her friend, wanting to help but feeling mostly helpless… Very relatable. The comic features great page layouts and colors, sometimes psychedelic art. I also enjoyed how the creators played with putting the characters into various styles and stories, giving the story a metafictional spin and playfully showing the construction of identities, always impacted by the conditions and expectations contexts bring with them. The comic also helped me get a better understanding of how it can be to suffer from body dysphoria.
I liked how at the end Eternity Girl starts to own a different identity, although I didn‘t really understand if the change of the right (red) arm into a shape and color that fits with the left (blue) arm was meant to show just that: A fundamental, physical change (maybe addressing the previous dysmorphia). Interessante deutsche Rezension: fragmenteum.wordpress.com/2019/05/15/eternity-girl-comic-kritik/