Charlie's Angels VS. The Bionic Woman

The Bionic Man

by Cameron DeOrdio, Soo Lee (Illustrator), Addison Duke (Colorist)

When Charlie's Angels pick up an assignment to steal a dangerous patent and put it back in the hands of its mysterious inventor, they encounter their toughest counterspy yet: Jaime Sommers, The Bionic Woman. This new volume follows two of television's top teams after their programming run and into the 1980s.

When the Office of Scientific Investigation is privatized and its patents sold off to the highest bidder, a military contractor looks to take an experimental drug to the battlefield. Will the Bionic Woman be able to protect the patent from the would-be thieves, or will the Angels prevail, mothballing the formula's military applications in favor of medical uses?

Genres: Comics

104 pages, Paperback

Published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Owen Townend · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun idea for a 70s TV crossover that I found tepid.

Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman delivers on its title but the actual motive for this clash wasn't quite visceral enough.

Charlie sends the Angels on a mission to retrieve the formula of a powerful medical drug that is being weaponised and sold by the Naris corporation. Meanwhile the Bionic Woman has agreed to defend this same formula from thieves, at the recommendation of a trusted ally.

We don't really get to see how the drug affects users or even enter into any visually impressive combat sequences. If it was DeOrdio's intention to simulate an episode from Charlie's Angels or The Bionic Woman, he did a very credible job. However comics do not rely on the same budget constraints or old-fashioned storytelling. This plot could have shifted into a more thrilling direction.

On the subject of comic book storytelling, I'm afraid a couple of obvious tricks were missing from this book. Rather than having characters narrate their thoughts via callout balloon or using thick lines and onomatopoeia to suggest fast action, more contemporary visual shorthands could have been used, including thought text boxes or thinner action lines on cleaner backgrounds. Then again that might just be the personal style of artist Lee, working to a limited page count.

Nevertheless I found this crossover a bit too low-key and unadventurous for my tastes. If the idea of reading a missing episode from two iconic 70s TV shows appeals, then you might get more out of Charlie's Angels vs. the Bionic Woman.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" by Cameron DeOrdio (writer), Soo Lee (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Crank! and Tom Napolitano (letterers), Cat Staggs (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2021; originally released in single issue format as "Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" #1-4 (2019-2019 (couldn't find the original months). Thoughts: I have to say that I was disappointed with the execution of this one. Supposedly taking place in 1983 (after the ends of both the "Bionic Woman" and "Charlie's Angels" tv series), what could have been a very interesting story (especially as depicted on the *covers* of the individual issues, which depicted very close likenesses of Lindsay Wagner and the three "Charlie's Angel" actresses, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and Tanya Roberts) is sabotaged by both not bad but a poorly matched artist to this type of material (Soo Lee's art here is what I would call very "manga-esque", although I admit that I am not very knowledgeable about manga and some might disagree with that assessment; regardless, I found that Lee drew the three "Charlie's Angel's" ladies pretty much identical to each other with only their hair color as distinguishing characteristics). The other big fault I found here was that Jaime for the first part of the story acts very out of character, and that the Oscar Goldman shown here is *clearly* not the same character as portrayed by Richard Anderson on the tv series. He is drawn differently, he is shown sparring with Jaime in hand-to-hand fight training several times (something I could never see Anderson's Oscar doing), and (spoilers) is written in such a way to give me the same feeling I did at the end of the first "Mission Impossible" movie with Tom Cruise in regards to the use of the Jim Phelps character there (that's all I'll say about that for fear of going too much away). Again, I think Soo's art is nice in a general sort of way but not a very good match for a licensed tie-in comic book like this one. Oh, yeah, and not only do the three "Charlie's Angels" characters look alike here we also get pretty much zero character time with any of them except for a bit with Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith's character). We don't get any back story of them aside from a bit of the opening narration from the tv show ("Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to the police academy...") And, of course, the requisite "Hello Charlie" meetings with Bosley and Charlie (over the desk loudspeaker) at the office. I gave this two out of five stars on GoodReads.

[livv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just once I’d like someone to do the Charlie’s Angels franchise justice, and not with Julie Rogers. Two stars because at least I got one decent moment between Kris and Kelly. Otherwise, meh.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly entertaining crossover that appears to do justice to the Bionic Woman side of the house, though I'm not sure how well it serves the Charlie's Angels fans (not having watched the show). The art seems to miss a little on capturing the likenesses of the stars, but that might have been a necessary choice. (B+)

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, so there's a reason this has an average rating in the 2's. It's not very good. A lot of things aren't clear or don't make sense. For instance, the first time the Angels meet Jamie, they are in a parking garage. The very next panel they are chasing each other through the woods. I had to double check to make sure I hadn't skipped any pages. People act out of character. It didn't really feel like the writer had read more than a synopsis of either show.

Soo Lee's art might work for other projects but not here. The linework is really heavy, kind of like early Tommy Lee Edwards. Here all the women looked the same, only to be told apart by their hair cut. No one looks like their TV characters. The colors were really drab. With the combination I had a hard time telling the characters apart. The story is hard to follow as well and the book ends feeling like there should have been another issue and it was cut short.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chugged along as a serviceable dual homage until the last few pages when it took an oddly political turn and just...ended. As long as you can ignore the fiction that any of the Angels (or Oscar?!?) could be an even match for BW in a fight, you won't be completely disappointed. Just mildly disappointed.

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, mediocre execution. I liked the art but none of the characters really looked like the actors. The book puts heroes against each other which doesn't really work. The Angels are trying to steal a super soldier formula which the Bionic Woman is trying to protect. There is only one copy of the formula and apparently none of the people working on it have memorized it which is nonsensical. I also realized how easy it would be to manipulate the good guys. The Angels just take it on face value that they are stealing for the rightful owner.

[Fireena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seriously, while it's far from the worst thing I've ever read, it really just felt half baked, and the ending didn't feel like an ending at all. Everything felt disjointed and nothing felt fleshed out. Overall it just felt like a bit of a mess, and it left me feeling really disappointed.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the worst crossover ever, but it is stupid. Stupid but fun. The artwork leaves a little to be desired, but it isn't terrible. It's a nostalgic stupid spy crossover.

[Gus Casals · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. And actually, there are some clever (and character -accurate) beats in here, but I just couldn't with the art.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun idea that doesn't quite click.

Didn't love the art, and the Angels don't have much of a rogues gallery, so they kind of end up as Jamie Summers sidekicks.

Fun time waster.