Title: Rival Angels: Season 2 Volume 1
Date: 2014
Publisher: Rival Angels
Writer: Alan Evans, Justin Riley
Artist: Alan Evans
Colorist: Aaron Daly
Rookie wrestler Sabrina "Ultragirl" Mancini travels to Japan to join Tokyo-based Millennium Wrestling Association. She makes new friends, faces new and old rivals, and deals with the sexism of an organization in which womens wrestling is not a priority in spite of the talent of the womens roster.
The parallels to pre-"Womens Evolution" WWE are pretty clear, right down to the Hulk Hogan stand-in who serves as one of the sexist authority figures.
Sabrina's romantic plotline with Lightweight Champion Yoshihiro Yamamoto has some sweet moments, and the backstage intrigue involving various factions was complex enough to keep things interesting.
One thing that worked well here compared to previous volumes was the use of more of a rapid-fire highlights style to tell a bunch of wrestling stories in a small number of panels. I found it really effective in advancing plot, while saving the blow-by-blow action for a few important matches. Sabrina's full match with Black Widow was given the space it needed as a major event.
While I missed Krystin, who was back in Rival Angels and didn't appear in this volume, Sun got in a pretty awesome feel-good moment, along with some good character interaction.
The soap-opera cliffhanger was a classic cliche, but I am interested in seeing where the story goes next.
Rating: 7/10
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