Comic Book Review: The Avant-Guards Volume One written by Carly Usdin, art by Noah Hayes
Charlene “Charlie” Bravo was an excellent basketball player in high school, and got a scholarship to State. But for various reasons, her freshman year was a disaster, and Charlie has transferred to the Georgia O’Keefe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics to focus on her film major. Joining another basketball team is off the menu! But obsessive organizer Olivia Bates has other ideas.
Despite considerable initial resistance, fueled by Charlie’s anxiety and trust issues, Olivia and the rest of the prospective team win her over. In addition, Olivia and Charlie seem to be forming a more personal bond.
The characters are in college, but there’s nothing in this volume that a senior high-aged reader couldn’t handle. Not a lot of time is spent on explaining the rules or the technical side of basketball, as readers are expected to already know these details. And the game itself is relatively low-stakes as they’re participating in a “fun league” for small specialty colleges. (Their first match is against the Cuddly Retrievers of a veterinary school.)
Instead, most of the page space is devoted to character interactions, especially between Charlie and Olivia. (We see almost nothing of Charlie’s roommate, who isn’t happy to be sharing a room.)
There’s a fair amount of diverse representation here, including different ethnic backgrounds, religions, sexual preferences and genders. this being a modern college story, all this is taken as granted by the characters.
While all of the characters have some irritating traits, they come across as sympathetic and worth rooting for.
Most of the drama in this first issue is Charlie dealing with her issues and slowly opening up to Olivia. There’s a cliffhanger at the end of this volume that’s more about the basketball part of the plot, and some bits of background are clearly being held back for reveals later.
The art is nice, and it’s easy to tell the main characters apart. (Diversity helps!)
If lesbian sports romance is your thing, I highly recommend this volume.
