Comic Review: Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder

Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder

BOOM! Studios

Writer & Artist: John Allison

Giant Days holiday specials are now an annual tradition and a wonderful one at that. Each one-shot gives John Allison the opportunity to explore unusual angles, which is often fun and engaging. Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder is the third-holiday special and takes the story to Australia.

With Chrismas right around the corner, Ed Gemmel is off to see Nina for the holiday season. The previous holiday specials have felt somewhat experimental, but this issue feels much more grounded. Rather than an alternate reality, Ed’s adventure is simply another normal slice-of-day endeavor.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because Ed’s story is quite enjoyable. Nina’s family is as wild as you would expect, and are constantly pushing Ed’s fragile sense of strength to the limit. There are plenty of fun times to be had, and it was nice to meet so many new faces. I like Nina as a character, but I was glad to see the issue focus on Ed’s interactions with her family, which made for a lovely change of pace.

While Where Women Glow and Men Plunder looks good, the issue does sort of miss the punch that the series usually has. This isn’t at a knock against John Allison’s art, it’s just that Max Sarin elevates the series in an unexplainable way. This issue is fun to look at, and the characters look as great as they always do, but the expressions just aren’t quite what we are used to seeing. More than anything, I think it’s that the eyes don’t pop like they usually do. Again, this is a fine looking issue, especially because of Whitney Cogar’s vivid colors making Australia absolutely gorgeous in December.

Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder is another successful holiday special, even if it doesn’t try to do anything crazy this time around. It makes for a fun side-story away from the usual drama that tends to follow Esther, Daisy, and Susan.