Webtoon Originals brings you a mystery webcomic that takes place in a Latin American world where a vigilante goes out and bring justice into her own hands which is Señorita Cometa.
(THIS COMIC REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN’T READ THIS WEBTOON. PLEASE READ IT BEFORE READING MY REVIEW: https://www.webtoons.com/en/mystery/senorita-cometa/list?title_no=3387&page=1)
Y’know, for 6 years now, I’ve been reviewing physical comic books from major publishers like Image, IDW, Dark Horse, etc. And all this time I’ve been so focused on reading and writing reviews about all ages to violence and gore physical comics, I kind of forgot about the webcomic age. So I decided to start reviewing one of the Webtoon Original series. Webtoon is the current comic platform trend that everyone and their mothers who wanted to read comics on their phone, and there are so many webtoons that I can’t even keep up. Anyway earlier on, I reviewed two Webtoons that already got their graphic novels like Space Boy by Stephen McCrannie, and Hooky by Miriam Bonastre, but there’s more to it. I only scavaged these two holy grails of Hookies before I even began, so why not go even further as part of my learning experience while I’m going in the process to create a new webcomic as an actual Webtoon material.
So I’m going to review my third favorite Webtoon, Señorita Cometa. This is the first webtoon that I’m going to read and review digitally in the year 2023. Never heard of it? Well, you heard of it now. This webcomic is what you get when you take inspiration from one of the Image Comic heroines without superpowers, squeeze that hype juice out of the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5, turn this comic into a Latin American world, and turn an athlete woman into a vigilante, and you get this out of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. And what really surprises me is that this is the first webtoon that ever introduced the plot that takes place in Mexico. Unlike that other Image Comic that has mystery and crime genres or something, this webtoon is like the anime/manga version of the many Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips books that I’ve read, collected, and reviewed, and this webtoon story is something that they never had the balls to do. This one focuses on a strong female protagonist who has a lot of energy, courage, and determination to bring those crooks to justice.
The webtoon is created by my friend Arechan, she’s the author who created two webcomic series which is Luff and another webtoon called Faust, although I never heard of “Faust” before. Also, she described herself as “a ball of anxiety disguised as a human being,” to me, she’s a sweet potato that has more nutrients than any other vegetable combined. However, in reality, I met her in person for the first time at that Comic Con event in NYC along with her friend Miriam in October, and once I did get to see them for myself, Arechan’s art is probably second to none, and she started to mention her webtoon. So after the conference, I was curious about her webtoon and thought that it’s somewhat interesting.
The first thing that I popped that evil little daredevil into my phone to see that webtoon, and somehow the protagonist is really cute. Although she may be cute as a button, but when she gets in gear with the Cometa suit, she can kick ass. There’s not much more to say, but if it was a graphic novel, I expect to see one of the main characters and some name tags written. The description of the comic, just blew me away, it takes place in the city of Yoalco, which is referenced as Polanco on the city of Mexico, there are two gangs that have overrun the city that involves kidnappings, murder, and some illegal activities related, the police are powerless against them, but a woman named Alejandra Estrella takes action and decides to take justice in her own hands, and became Cometa. Anyway, I’m going to review half of the episodes, starting Episodes 1 through 22 because the story is ongoing and I’m not just going to talk about that, just like Hooky I’m also here to talk about the aspects of the story some of the Spanish related stuff that I’m gonna go over in real life.
First of all, good luck scrolling down this webtoon to find the music just to see some violet, pinkish lighting background at night from any retro coloring in the 80s that was ever produced. The story starts with something that you see in the opening theme of Batman the animated series with a theme song, but instead the theme song starts with some Saxophone beats that is composed by Joe Di Fiore, but to me, it sounded like Remi Alvarez and Juan Luis Guerra discovered the Matrix. So the protagonist Alejandra, or Alex goes into the biggest tower in Yoalco in disguise to crash some big shot’s party on the top floor, just to take his smartphone just to get the information about her missing friend. After that, some of the security guards chase her and thought that the helmet-wearing criminal was a boy which is much more unrealistic to see that not all heroes wear capes but they do wear masks.
And after when she got off the building, she escaped with a help of her friend who happens to be the Mexican Luchador version of John Cena, which is Adalmundo, he’s like a beast, but I can’t help the fact that he’s like a tin man on steroids and his chest is basically has a form of a woman’s breasts. Heck, I’ve been going to the gym to work out in the morning and I’ve seen some men who look just like him before, BUT NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I EVER MET SOMEONE WHO’S MAN BOOBS ARE BIGGER THAN A MAN’S HEAD. The next scene takes place in a police department where Alex is working as an IT technician, of course, it’s safe to say that Alex is working at the police department in her office clothes, there she won’t be noticed that she’s the vigilante in disguise. After work she met up with her friend which happens to be the leader of the Jaguars gang, she talks about finding her missing friend Lola, and Alex is determined to find her and come back home.
Of course, as time passes, everyone heard the news about the mysterious Cometa vigilante, but there’s more to it. Alex is not just an IT technician, but she also creates/repairs toys, creates a grappling hook, and probably a hacker. Alex seems to be holding her life so well. But then the malevolent monster called “life” rears its ugly head on the computer screen to say to her “please to meet you, hope you guess my name, Mamacita.” Once she got that data from that gangster, she saw something that made her jump from her seat, but I can’t tell you that, because what she saw is actually much worse than The Reckless comic book series on Image Comics. But what’s really so strange is that some gangsters have been kidnapping women in the city of Mexico and making them their slaves. That is really logical to say that there are many crime lords in Mexico city that involves drug trafficking, but this story focuses on the cases of some missing women in Mexico that go without a doubt that these women are being kidnapped, raped, and murdered, and I see so many on the news, the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip comics that I mentioned, or some who are chasing the American dream than hearing Donald Trump’s stupid ugly voice saying “DUUUUHHHH I will build a wall in Mexico” cliche.
Let’s move on. Jumping off a few episodes later, Alex finds herself some streamer by the name of Lottie who happens to look like some V-Tuber avatar or some lame-ass CGI character from Berserk, who plays games and speaks about politics. Imagine that in real life, your avatar is some furry animal with some swag sunglasses who speaks about politics and goes all out to rant every single one of them and delivered them to justice over some public speaking, and then when the moon is full, he becomes a werewolf and chomps those crooks and dips their eyeballs at the back to their brains. Alex found out about Lottie right after she goes to peek some cafe’s office at the back door to look for some guy’s name, but she forgot and her friend recommended that person. And then she set up a schedule to talk to Lottie privately. The next day while she was in the office a detective of the police department named Puig which is sounded like a pig, whose appearance looks like someone who came out of some homeless shelter, he asked Alex to fix the computer, but then he apologized to her for eavesdropping with her and Adal, and sexually harassed her for whatever it is. And then they started over with the introductions, revealing himself as the same guy on the poster saying “feel safe again”, by fixing up his hair and his uniform, I find it very funny, having her destroyed out of embarrassment, believe me, I was on the floor crying and laughing uncontrollably as if I discovered a sick joke from an old friend of mine. Later she got a message from Lottie, and they chatted privately then she requested to find this Sofia person who looked like some hot model from Instagram or something, that holds the answer to all her questions.
So jumping from all the drama and inventing Batman’s grappling hook out of his utility belt, managed to sneak into Sofia’s apartment and met her in person, then Alex in the Cometa suit explained the situation, the fight between Sofia’s brother who is having them play cat and mouse or stabbing Alex while she moves her small hips dancing like some crazy ass Marionette puppet doll (speaking of, please read Ms. Miriam’s second Webtoon, Marionetta, seriously she will be missed), and she manages to run away, and almost jumping a few episodes later, Alex got herself a new suit replacing the old one, on that scene where she takes the statue from some guy who owns a club and a casino. And as soon as they realize the reason for stealing the statue is for Puig to find the file of the day when one of the women was kidnapped and took the copy for evidence. However, that statue was so precious to that man, that it’s a very valuable treasure that’s been missing in the sixties. Then, Puig started with his coffee meditation to refresh back on the earlier incidents between the missing women and those crooks who just find the right pieces to the puzzle.
>What I really like about the part of the comic is where Alex, Adal, and Lottie talked about the plan of “returning the statue” and then the next scene goes out referencing the movie Shaun of the Dead, if you haven’t seen it yet, but instead of zombies, you get their wisecracks about Cometa being the Latina version of Static Shock, Sofia marrying Adal and have kids or having Alex act like Deadpool to hide the box under the table. But NOPE…. All they did was mail the box with the statue, deliver it to the museum, go to the Winchester bar, have a cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over. HOW’S THAT FOR A SLICE OF FRIED CHICKEN? MY GOD…. What is wrong with me?? I’m sorry, that movie takes me back. (Fortunately, drinking water and Japanese green tea are my only beer and smoking/vaping.)
Ok, I’m about to wrap up the review at the scene where Alex and Puig are going out over lunch, as he pulls off with his “This IS a date” kind of cliché, where most of the posts and fan art are showing that they’re going out and I see those a lot from other Webtoons as well. But no, I’m sorry, I’m not going to talk about that, you have to find out for yourself. So in that scene, they talked about their lives, Puig was married before and Alex has a hobby of fixing things and more importantly making toys for children. That is very realistic if I would see someday Alejandra Estrella the Cometa vigilante, makes toys for children and gives them for Christmas and Dia de Los Reyes which is the Three Kings Day as a Christian holiday, which is on January 6 if you Spanish readers didn’t know that, so Feliz Dia de Los Reyes, queridos lectores! And the episode ends with them returning to the office, Puig has everything that he needs for his investigation, and Alex prepares to make her next move.
I’m somehow very surprised that Arechan made a webtoon that influences the many interactions in Latin America, and her webtoon got me hooked so far. Because I’m Hispanic in blood, but I’m not Mexican, I’m actually half Ecuadorian and half Puerto Rican, born in NYC. And my Spanish blood flows through my veins whenever this comic comes through my mind in real life because there is so much that I recognize. I’ve been reading and writing comic reviews for six years outside of manga because it’s a bigger world out there and sometimes I get some of the mystery and noir stories that involve kidnappings, drug trafficking, and murders, such as the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips books that I like and I’ve been collecting. However, there are some comics that involve the crime city of Mexico that involve almost everything that fills the description. But never once in my life that I witnessed a comic about women kidnappings in the city of Mexico after I asked Arechan in person in October about her webtoon that almost sounded exactly how she described her experience of her life in Mexico. And it’s so rare that to tell you the truth, the only reason that I know about it is that it’s not just Mexico that has been involved but there are some other foreigners in South America who escaped some country like Venezuela from war, just to seek help outside of the city, I was in Ecuador for some time and then there’s some killings and kidnappings in the city of Guayaquil which is more intimidating on the news. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t be surprised if Arechan’s webtoon is way more focused on the many crimes in Mexico that are actually related in real life because I can’t even believe that more than one comic series of this goddamn piece of Hooky, could even exist. So anyway, I didn’t expect anything regarding a superhuman who jumps like a bunny, fights crime, once I knew the story, and the art, it immediately got me hooked.
So what do I know about my friend’s art style? First, of, I want to talk about the characters, whenever I see her art for the first time when I met her and Miriam in person, Arechan’s art is almost like you’re using some of the smoothest lines that Clip Studio Paint ever produced, but it’s not just that, it was almost drawn like the animation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Series, take like Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains for example, the characters are smooth enough as if I would call an actual animation, and how they battle each other with cards is something else. Arechan’s character design was really good, but what’s one thing that I should have done a thousand times by now? Close the webtoon app, but I refused, you know why? Because this story is too recognizable for a Hispanic guy like me, I’m just going through some episodes and finding some Spanish trademarks and people’s names that sounded so familiar, except some of them, sounded like animals like Paloma as a pigeon, Beccero as in some goat or Puig as a pig, not caring whether I get hooked or stop scrolling down on my phone like an idiot. Either I get surprised that the heroine is the smol version of Sara Pezzini from Witchblade or some inkling character from Splattoon, whichever comes first, I welcome it.
All I know is that the story of Señorita Cometa is actually a mystery comedy genius that any reader could go flip out. And that’s what I want from Webtoon to produce something like that, but how long do I have to read before I start flipping out? It’s just a reminder I have not read any other Webtoon Originals and Canvas titles other than Stephen’s and Ms. Miriam’s because I was busy doing my webcomic and thought the webtoon itself is becoming so weak. So if all along you’ve been thinking/saying that our Canvas comics that we all worked on sucked ass, then you’re much weaker than a cockroach. If you’re into webcomics that involve a Hispanic world, then this webcomic is for you to check it out.
Newsdesk