White Tiger: A Hero’s Compulsion by Tamora Pierce & Timothy Liebe

by Chriss Cornish published: February 11, 2008 No Comments

This Book Is About

Roaring out of the pages of Daredevil, the new White Tiger makes a ferocious debut! Angela del Toro knows pain: Her uncle- Hector Ayala, the former White Tiger – Killed. Her FBI partner, murdered. Her career, ruined. Her mentor, Matt Murdock, jailed. The Yakuza’s bloodthirsty Sano Orii returns, a genocidal shadow organization appears, and a new-but-old super-powered madman is looking to put the squeeze on White Tiger. Armed with mystical amulets- and finally in costume – White Tiger demands answers! But will she survive long enough to ask the right questions?

Collecting White Tiger #1-6 – featuring the dynamic scripting of New York Times best-selling fantasy author Tamora Pierce (Trickster’s Queen, The Will of the Empress) with Timothy Liebe; and the masterful penciling of rising star Phil Briones (La Geste Des Chevaliers-Dragons, Les Seigneurs D’Agartha) with Al Rio and Ronaldo Adriano Silva.

My Thoughts On This Book

I went in to Comic Gallery to see if they could order The Adventures of Luther Arkwright trade for me. But there was no one at the counter; she’d gone in back for something. So I was forced, FORCED I tell you, to browse around the shop. It was terrible. Really. What?

Anyways, while I was perusing the shelves, White Tiger caught my eye. The name Tamora Pierce was familiar from a really good young adult audio book I’d heard so I flipped through. And was hooked by the scene where White Tiger gets her costume.

Yeah, so, apparently Dare Devil is sort of her mentor, to a degree, and he had kicked her off a roof in the past, breaking her arm. The Black Widow felt that Dare Devil was a jerk about the whole thing so she bankrolled for White Tiger’s costume. And Spiderman tagged along. It’s a great scene, with rich visuals, cinematic artwork and fun dialog.

And that, pretty much sums up White Tiger; great scenes, rich visuals, cinematic artwork, and fun writing. There are a few patches of so-so dialog, though.

This is an origin story, but a ‘higher class’ one; two of White Tiger’s uncles (fictive kin, of course[not blood relations, but family friends]) are Iron Fist and Cage, the Black Widow likes her, and she’s acquainted with Spiderman.

I also like the way the flashback are handled. Instead of using sepia tones or black and white, as is common, they used very desaturated colors and the page was partly ‘now’ and partly ‘then’ to make the time difference clear.

Oh, and undoubtedly the funniest part of the whole storyline is when White Tiger has assembled her superhero team to take down the big villain. Besides her two “uncles”, she’s got Black Widow and Spiderman up on the rooftop. While she’s giving everyone the game plan she says they’ll need some photo evidence, turns to Spiderman, hands him a camera, and, in all seriousness, asks him if he knows how to use a camera. And all the other superheros bust up while the ‘ol Wall Crawler stands there with a sheepish look.

So, a very entertaining and clever comic. And I like that the main character is a strong, clever woman; a good balance of fighter and investigator, human and hero, doesn’t show acres of cleavage, wants to be a hero but is reluctant to be a costume, and her chief villain is a sinister global conspiracy.

Marvel Universe timeline-wise, this is set in recent time but before the start of the Civil War plot. So, you don’t get any of that crazy storyline if you’re not into it (which I’m not) but there are signs, in the background, of the development of that world-plot.

Unfortunately, the copy I bought of the Graphic Novel had some printing errors, so the blue plate was a tad misaligned on some of the pages, giving them a slightly out-of-focus look. So, when you get your copy, be sure to check that it doesn’t have the same printing mistake.