Female Force: Cher
Written by Marc Shapiro
Pencils by Zach Bassett
Colors by Anthony Tan
Letters & Inks by Warren Montgomery
Cover by Joe Phillips
Bluewater Productions
Release date: January 3, 2012
Price: $3.99, $3.59 (print); $1.99 (ebook)

If you believe in life after love, then here’s something new for you: Female Force: Cher, a new one-shot comic book from Bluewater Comics.

First of all, when I opened my review copy I was like “What’s Cher Force One?” not realizing that 1) that this is not, in fact, the actual name of this comic book; 2) this is not a story about superhero Cher, so she does not have any powers – no, not even the power to turn back time, and 3) this is actually a biographical story ABOUT Cher.

Ok, so I’ve lost about 99% of you with those revelations, so for the remaining one percent (shout-out to my Cher-shirt-wearing mother-in-law, thanks for staying), here’s what you can expect from Female Force: Cher.

The 32-page full-color issue, written by New York Times best-selling author Marc Shapiro, details the life of the popular singer and actress from her humble beginnings and childhood struggles, to her years with the late Sonny Bono, through to her achievements in the world of entertainment as an Academy Award-winning actress and chart-topping performing artist.

While reading this comic book, I realized that, damn, I know a lot about Cher. I felt more like I was accuracy-checking the content rather than learning it for the first time. (Yeah, I don’t know how I came to know so much about her, so don’t ask.) Therefore, someone who’s already a die-hard Cher fan will get no new information from this product, though I’m guessing they will be thrilled to read her biography in a different medium.

Plus, if you’re a completest, you’ll want this comic for your collection, especially since the cover by Joe Phillips, which depicts the performer looking radiant in one of her famous stage get-ups, is gorgeous.

While the cover art is great and the writing by Marc Shapiro — who’s penned bios of J.K. Rowling, Mariah Carey, Ashton Kutcher, and many more — is straight-forward and lively, the one area where this issue suffers is with the art. The art is inconsistent, and while there are panels where the singer looks great, there are times when Cher just does not look like Cher, and by that, I mean ANY incarnation of Cher, pre or post plastic surgeries. With all the noses that Cher’s had, I find it hard to believe the artist couldn’t get any of them right. In some panels she looks like a brunette Rod Stewart; in others it’s as if her profile was flattened. And all the other celebrities who appear are not only unrecognizable, but look downright ugly. If their names weren’t given, you’d have no idea who they were, even if you already knew who to expect (like I did). One person in particular was really given the shaft, I’ll let you find out who on your own.

Female Force: Cher is perfect for the ultimate Cher fan and would be fun for anyone interested in her background. It would also make a great gag gift for the comics lover in your life who, like me, would also assume this was about a lightning-bolts-shooting-from-her-fingertips Cher.

The issue, which was released in January 2012, has already sold out, so if you don’t see it in your local comic book shop, you can pre-order the second printing (it’s also eligible for Amazon’s 4-for-3 promotion where you get four select items for the price of three). If you’ve really got to feast your eyes on this right away, it’s actually available for less money ($2 cheaper) for the Kindle. The Kindle ebook edition has text-to-speech enabled, which means you can have it read to you by the Kindle robot voice, it’s just like Cher’s auto-tune!

UPDATE: I see that TFAW has the issue for only $3.59 and it’s available right now.