Paper Girls vol. 2

Two volumes in and I’m still not as engaged as I feel I should be with this series.  Picking up from the ending of vol. 1, time travel is introduced as a major plot point as Erin, Mac, and Tiffany find themselves thrust into the strange future of 2016 where they’re greeted by an adult Erin.  There’s a lot of surprise, anxiety, and disappointment to go around as the girls find out about all of the crazy tech that our time has to offer and both Erins have to deal with the complications from coming face-to-face with who they were and who they wound up being.  While they’re puzzling out what to do next, sci-fi craziness creeps in around the edges as the Adults look to find ways to sterilize the damage being done to the timeline and a clone of Erin shows up with the offer of sanctuary for the girls.  At least, that’s what she says she’s offering.

Surprisingly, the addition of the time-travel angle to “Paper Girls” does help to make its conflicts that much clearer.  The Adults are out to make sure that the timeline is preserved at any cost, while the Kids have different ideas about that.  Unfortunately, it’s not clear exactly what the Kids’ agenda is beyond the “Adults are monsters” soundbites we get here.  The Kids also seem to be doing a lot more damage to the eras they’re in as all of the monsters 2016 has to deal with are a result of Clone Erin’s appearance.  This does add up to the title still feeling very puzzle box-y as the answers we get to the questions present in the series are ultimately going to determine whether or not it’ll wind up being a worthwhile ride in the end.

I will admit there are still some interesting bits to be found in vol. 2.  Brian K. Vaughan convincingly nails Adult Erin’s anxiety at coming face-to-face with her past self, and even manages to deliver some heartwarming moments in the process.  Mac is also hit with a surprising revelation about her future that’s handled quite well, while seeing the girls’ reaction to HD TVs (and the most recent “Ninja Turtles” movie) is good for a laugh.  Cliff Chiang also delivers typically excellent work, whether it’s involving the girls just talking to each other, or having giant maggot monsters duke it out in a river.  What’s here is basically good enough to hold my interest and keep reading this title, but “Paper Girls” isn’t a series where I’m eagerly anticipating every new volume.