'Wicked Things' #1 Review: Everything you loved about 'Giant Days' with a murder mystery to boot
Spoilers for 'Wicked Things' #1
'Giant Days' was a goofy, exuberant coming-of-age story about three close friends making their way through college. The premise wasn't anything more complicated than that, but the series accomplished a lot with it, simply because of how animated, unique and relatable its characters were. The 'Giant Days' days team of writer John Allison, artist Max Sarin, colorist Whitney Cogar and letterer Jim Campbell reunite for 'Wicked Things,' and it has all the elements that made 'Giant Days' so enjoyable, with the added plot hook of a mystery that needs solving.
Teen detective Charlotte Grote has nearly left her career behind her before moving to college, but she finds out that her best friend, Claire Little, has nominated her for the 'Teen Detective of the Year (16-18)' award. Charlotte now stands a chance at winning, and she and Claire head off to London to meet a mix of other teenage sleuths and famed adult detectives — all just in time for Charlotte to be framed for the murder of world-renowned detective, Kendo Miyamoto.
It's a good mystery story, setting up a lot of questions and clues before the murder even comes to bear. Who framed Charlotte Grote? Why did Miyamoto's translator misinterpret Charlotte's words? Why doesn't Clair believe her friend's innocence? All burning questions that don't really come to the fore until the end of the issue, because the pages preceding it are pure fun. Charlotte lives her life between exclamation marks, her exaggerated emotions on full display, perfectly counterbalanced by her relatively calmer, but equally enthusiastic best friend.
The cartoonish art style exaggerates everything in ways that are comedic gold, and that heightens the issue's emotional bits. The main characters are well fleshed out, with a wide range of emotions on display, which makes the one-note expressions of the background characters so much more amusing. Everyone plays the straight-man to Charlotte Grote's exuberance, and it never once gets old.
For fans with a 'Giant Days' shaped hole in their hearts, this is for you. It's also a comic for those who love teen detectives stories for their focus on friendship amidst mystery solving. The art style may seem merely ridiculous at first glance, but there's a lot of heart, and a lot of smarts going on beneath silliness, though the silliness in itself is still a delight.
The next issue of 'Wicked Things' releases on April 22, wherever comics are sold.