Barbarella # 1 NM Dynamite Mike Carey Kenan Yarar 1stP Subscription Cover Movie

Description

BARBARELLA #1 (COVER I SUBSCRIPTION – CASTRO) (DYNAMITE)

PUBLISHER Dynamite
WRITER Mike Carey
ARTIST Kenan Yarar
COVER ARTIST Roberto Castro
PAGES 32 pages
Full Color
FORMAT Comic Book

Earth’s star-crossed daughter is back! When Barbarella wanders into a war zone, the theocratic rulers of Parosia arrest and imprison her. A prison break is brewing, but now that she knows what the Parosians do to their own citizens Barbarella decides to make this fight her own.

For many people, when they think of Barbarella they picture Jane Fonda in a skimpy, ’60s-style outfit holding a ray gun. But when the character was first created for comics in 1962 by Jean-Claude Forest, it caused quite a scandal as it was one of the first adult, pornographic comics in Europe. The character quickly became an icon of the sexual revolution, and her popularity grew. She would continue on in the comics until the early ’80s. Now Dynamite has brought the character back in a new series from writer Mike Carey and artist Kenan Yarar.

The book has a European comic feel to it, which I think was planned. Had I not seen the Dynamite name on it, I would’ve assumed it was from a European publisher. Fans of the previous books should like that it continues that feel. The world looks good, the tech looks good, and the storytelling is strong.

The story is one of those that will make you keep thinking — even when you’ve put it down and moved on to something else. The basics setup is that you have an overly religious race who controls their people by removing their ability to feel pleasure. Barbarella happens into the area and gets taken in and accused of bringing contraband to their planet…the contraband being a fully functional vagina. She is then operated on in the same way they do to their children and then sent to jail, where she meets a human spy.

And after a back-breaking day of work in the yard, she and the spy have sex in front of all the other women in the prison to show them what having pleasure is like, and most of them follow suit. The next morning, Barbarella and the spy escape the prison, but are shot down as they are flying away — and that’s the first issue.

There are things about the story that I don’t understand, like what they actually did to to Barbarella if she could still receive pleasure from the spy and had the desire to do that — it’s a little confusing. And if you stopped right there, you’d think I didn’t like the book. But that’s the thing: it doesn’t stop there.

The story is very similar to the types of stories Barbarella touched on in the past. And then when you dig a little deeper, you see so much more. The majority of people in power were men (and some women), and all were religious to the point where they were unquestioning to prevent doubt. They clung to their religion like a life vest. And following that religion, they want to dictate to others what they can do with their bodies. Who they can be with. Why a person should even be having sex. The Parosians are a metaphor for the religious right and how they want to use government to force their beliefs on everyone. Even though we are almost 50 years since the height of the sexual revolution, the battle is still being fought. A character like Barbarella that spoke to the problems of the times in the ’60s and ’70s is back to speak to the problems of today.

The fact that it tries so hard to feel like the previous books and is still taking on the social and gender issues of the day makes me like this book quite a bit. It is keeping up the tradition of good science-fiction: telling a fun story while also sharing a message that applies to the world today.

The upcoming Barbarella reboot is starting to take shape. The futuristic female mercenary character made famous by Jane Fonda in the 1968 film will be resurrected in a new film that is expected to be sexy but adventurous, and not campy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Joe Gazzam will write the new action-adventure for Legally Blonde and The Ugly Truth director Robert Luketic attached to helm for the classic film’s original producer Dino De Laurentiis and his wife Martha. A Barbarella update had been set up in 2007 at Universal with Robert Rodriguez directing from a script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade; the new incarnation is not set up at any studio yet.

Sydney Sweeney to Star in New Barbarella Reboot

Emmy-nominated actress Sydney Sweeney is headed to a new franchise. On Tuesday, a report revealed that Sweeney is set to star in and executive produce a reboot of Barbarella, the franchise based on Jean-Claude Forest’s comic book series of the same name. The project is in the works at Sony Pictures, which is already working with Sweeney on the Marvel movie Madame Web, as well as The Registration. Despite being initially announced back in 2020, the project is reportedly still in the early days of development, with no writer or director attached. The Barbarella series was first adapted into a now cult-classic film starring Jane Fonda, which debuted in 1968.

The original Barbarella film follows an astronaut from the 41st century, who sets out to find and stop the evil scientist Durand Durand, whose Positronic Ray threatens to bring evil back into the galaxy. While the film was initially a box office flop, it has grown a cult following, especially once its unedited 1968 release was released on home media.

Barbarella was created by Forest to be serialized in V Magazine in 1962, and began to be collected in a standalone book years later. The comic followed the exploits of Barbarella, a space-faring astronaut who goes on adventures throughout the galaxy. It is often regarded to be one of the first erotic comic books, as well as a revolutionary step in terms of representing the sexual revolution of the era. Multiple new comics inspired by the franchise have been published by Dynamite in recent years.

“In the 1960s, Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella was a character who helped to define her era – the first emancipated heroine for a decade that questioned all rules and moral codes,” Mike Carey said in a statement when the comic was first announced. “I’m hugely excited to be involved in re-inventing this classic and iconic character for the modern age, and introducing her to many readers who weren’t even alive when she first travelled the spaceways.”

Following the 1968 release of Barbarella, there have been many attempts to continue or reboot the franchise onscreen. Initially, there were plans for a sequel, which would have tentatively been titled Barbarella Goes Down. There were then efforts to reboot the franchise with a new film in the 2000s, which would have been directed by Robert Rodriguez, and later Robert Luketic, and starred Rose McGowan. That incarnation of the project ultimately fell apart due to budget and filming constraints. A musical adaptation was produced in 2004. In 2012, Amazon Studios and Gaumont International Television aimed to create a Barbarella television series, which would have been set in Asia and directed by The Neon Demon’s Nicolas Winding Refn.

“Well, I don’t own Barbarella, the estate does, but I decided to be more interested in the Neon Demon,” Refn told The Playlist in 2016. “Plus there are other television things that caught my attention because I actually enjoy designing it from the beginning. It became… Barbarella, it was like Logan’s Run: certain things are better left untouched. You don’t need to remake everything”.

Near mint, 1st print. Bagged & Boarded.