DC Pride #1: Renee Montoya in ‘Try The Girl’

Try The Girl is the perfect noir tale, with an intriguing introduction and on point internal monologue that relies on the wit, charm and kind of adorable seriousness of its main character, and Vita Ayala’s ability to perfectly define Renee Montoya’s background and personality both for fans of the characters and casual readers of this anthology is as good as their ability to present them in a fun engaging way that makes these four pages seem even shorter. That, with the subversion of the princess of distress trope and the inclusion of a more than fitting love interest for Renee (someone she sees as an equal, but she’s also nervous around and impressed by) makes for the best cocktail for this story.

And then the artistic team nails every dark visual bit, from the rainy town to the bloody fight and city lights of celebration, managing to both stay on tone for the story and run a wide variety of emotions. An issue filled with visual narrative, where FX (shoutout to the way Ariana Maher carries you through the fight and places you gracefully in the resolution) and color gradients carry you perfectly, and where everything seems right in its place.

But it’s the end of this story that really condenses all its tension, all its character work, all the bloody punches and city smokes.

In just the last page, Skylar Patridge and José Villarrubia’s art hits all the perfect notes of the chemistry between these two women. Showing Valeria’s confident flirting and comfortability around Renee as well as Renee’s emotional state by body language (the hat tip as she flirts with Valeria, the fingers bye-bye-ing, that beautiful head tilt after the unleashed emotions that synchs with realizing what her date knows about her…), mimicking Renee’s infatuation with the beautiful pink sky as if all the city was expressing her emotions, the way Valerie grabs Renee’s clothes with passion and urgency, the LIPSTICK on The Question’s mask and the messiness on her hair after that last kiss moment. That last page gives me chills every time and I really really want to frame it in my room from now on. For this team has created the most perfect romance possible in only 4 pages, and the sweetest spot for it to end is the words “Just the beginning…”.