Kamen America, Vol. 1: Stars and Strife

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Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Lansky, the depraved talent agent whom Carly ultimately fires, is one of these. Meet Charlotte "Carly" Vanders, a driven, patriotic, enthusiastic redhead who wants to be a fashion designer (shocking in this day and age, I know). Her path toward this goal is promptly shattered by irradiated space debris, and surprise, surprise, she's now a blonde, supercharged human battery! While Wormwood isn't truly sadistic, she's certainly disrespectful and cruel to Carly and Vicki, belittling their interests and insisting they develop different ones.

Similar names aside, Kamen America's outfits draw from both Supergirl's All-American Face and Captain Marvel's original Ms. Kamen America , Kamen Comet , Kamen Ramen , and Kamen Victory will have to combine their powers in new and creative ways to face a threat more powerful than any they have encountered so far!

Shedding her corporate and media overlords and imbued with the American spirit of self reliance and self determination, she is the patriotic paladin now known as KAMEN AMERICA! Eventually, he expanded his portfolio to include an array of diverse freelance projects: comic book covers for IDW, pinups featured in art books by UDON, and even plush toy designs for Squishable. There are also two webcomic spinoffs of the series, Kamen America: The Web Series and Kamen Academy , and some Japanese doujinshi . Good thing, too, because enormous monsters start springing up across the country, and her agency isn't about to let this crisis go to waste. Elemental Powers: Several of the Kamen Corps have them, including Misha (who has fire powers) and Kimiko (who has water ones).

Big Bad Friend: Vicki, Carly's best friend since childhood, is revealed to be the villainous Vermillion Masquerade, the arc villain for the first four issues. Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, he is a first generation American born to Asian immigrants. During a USO performance for American troops, she's hit by irradiated space debris and given incredible powers.Things get complicated really quickly when Carly's former agent, Niro Lansky, joins forces the mysterious woman behind the monster attacks: Vermillion Masquerade! I saw very little of this comic mentioned online and that surprised me as from the title and the art I saw I assumed this would be a fun parody/love letter to the patriotic hero archetype with a sprinkling of tokusatsu and magical girl anime to create a funny mash-up of East meets West. Instead, she declares that the hero's identity is instead uniquely Carly's on account of all the good deeds and heroic work Carly had done while using that name. Carly and the Kamen Corps are in an awkward, precarious position as they must face the reality that one of their friends is the villainous Vermillion Masquerade!

Moreover, her outfits in general accentuate this for her team, which causes some problems when monsters attack during a fashion show and Sylvia has to run back to the hotel while wearing one of Carly's skimpy outfits so she can get her power armor and deal with the threat. Misha started as an employee of one before she defected and joined the Kamen Corps, and Hare Trigger ran one.

Expy: Carly Vanders is an expy of both DC's Supergirl and Marvel's Captain Marvel, who respectively have the similar names of Kara Danvers and Carol Danvers and are already expies of each other. Fortunately, this time she's joined by former foe Misha Lovacova , who now goes by the name Kamen Comet . Join the super-charged patriotic paladin KAMEN AMERICA in her ongoing graphic novel series as this high-flying henshin heroine relies on her grit, self-determination, and loyal compatriots to fight the forces of evil! Charlotte "Carly" Sasha Vanders was just a girl-next-door with dreams of being a fashionista someday.

Good Shepherd: Carly's priest, Father Blatty, is depicted as being compassionate and caring towards his congregation. The biggest insult is people on youtube and other sites having the gall to say this isn't political. Timothy Lim (NINJAINK, LLC) is a freelance illustrator whose work includes licensed art for merchandising, comic book covers, and plush toys. Villain with Good Publicity: Cynthia presents herself as a righteous activist who is using her resources to protect people, and she's widely beloved for it, but she's actually a villainous monster. Engineered Heroics: Carly's arch nemesis Vermillion Masquerade turns out to be her best friend Vicki.

Alpha Bitch: Carly originally saw Sylvia as this, since Sylvia was wealthy, popular, and somewhat insensitive towards Carly herself. As they get closer to figuring out the secret identity of Vermillion Masquerade, the stakes are raised as the danger may be a lot more familiar to the team than they expected!