Kelly Thompson

Meet Jerrica Benton-- a girl with a secret. She and her sisters team up with to become... JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in Jem and the Holograms: Showtime! Collects issues #1-4.

Jem and the Holograms, Vol. 1: Showtime

Rowan Myers

I was a kid when the Jem and the Holograms cartoons were on television and I was obsessed. I owned ten of the dolls, playsets, everything. That would put me firmly in the "reading out of nostalgia" demographic for this comic.

That being said, the updates they gave the comic are great. Social media plays a part in the Misfits vs. Holograms rivalry, everyone has a sassy undercut, people go to bookstores to hide because nobody reads anymore (wince). I also loved the Kimber and Stormer romance. (True story: as a kid I shipped it too and would make my Kimber and Stormer dolls kiss.) This queer person was thrilled that it was just accepted that Kimber is girl crazy and has a crush on Stormer. No preamble, no big buildup to her coming out, no treating it like an oddity or a commodity. Kimber has a romance arc, and so does Jerrica. The body diversity in the holograms also thrilled me. Let's hear it for girls who aren't super thin!

I gave this four stars simply because, for me, the pacing was a little boring. I think it might be because I found the beginning of the show to be really slow (battle of the bands, Misfits sabotage things, the Holograms rally, repeat ad nauseam). I'm going to try one more omnibus before I decide to continue or not.