Everybody loves a good international fighting tournament. It’s the premise for Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken and just about every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie ever made. It’s easy to see why — it’s so simple! You get a diverse cast of characters together, you put them in the ring, and they fight. What’s their motivation? Victory! What other motivation do you need?
Giantess Fight, by author Echo Wing and artist J. J. McQuade, takes this basic premise in an exciting new direction. In the future, the Giantess Fight is a huge international sporting event, fought between women from all around the world. Using advanced technology, the organisers of the fight make ordinary competitors grow to huge size to battle it out for the honor and glory of their home countries.
The first issue focuses on a fighter, Hitomi, who arrives in Italy for the Giantess Fight along with her friend and coach. But her battle begins even before the first bell rings when mysterious assailants attack. Hitomi soon finds herself dragged into an investigation targeting one of the other giantess fighters, the sinister Mafia princess Nicola Charos.
One of the downsides of the international fighting tournament premise is that it can leave itself open to corny national stereotypes. Giantess Fight is refreshingly free of these, though. Hitomi is Japanese, but she’s a quick-witted, principled fighter and not at all the “submissive woman” her enemies mistake her for. Similarly, Nicola, a busty, whip-wielding redhead, is very much her own character rather than a simplistic stereotype.
The intriguing setup and varied characters suggest that Giantess Fight is going to be a pretty wild tale. There are even some other characters hinted at on the front cover who have yet to appear.
The first issue is mainly set-up for the upcoming story. Indeed, despite the title, there are no giantesses fighting in the first issue of Giantess Fight. There’s fighting, of course: Hitomi wallops some of Charos’ agents. And there’s plenty of McQuade’s trademark curvy women, including a sex scene that shows of Nicola’s dominant personality. But the actual battles are yet to come — and the buildup suggests there’ll be something more to them than simple slugfests.
Giantess Fight – Round One is an intriguing introduction that promises to build up to a dramatic conclusion. The intrigue surrounding the fight gives it plenty of context, and the developing rivalry between hero and villain suggests that when they do finally meet in the ring it’s going to be more than ordinarily brutal.
