DC Comics sought to swim in new waters with female teenage readers. In 2007, the Minx license was launched with six manga-sized graphic novels heavy with female protagonists. Building on the success of the initial six books, Minx is releasing six more editions throughout 2008. Sadly, one of these books – Water Baby by Ross Campbell – ends up sinking like a rock.

Water Baby deals with Brody, a tatted surfer chick of ambiguous sexuality. In the first few pages, she gets attacked by a shark, losing the lower half of her left leg. She winds up with a prosthetic leg for her troubles, but little else seems to cause ripples in her life as she hangs out with her best friend Louisa. But her ex-boyfriend Jake comes back into her life, planting himself on her couch, mooching off her food and beer, and generally being a pest. After Brody finds Jeff passed out with vomit everywhere, she takes him and Louisa on an impromptu road trip to take him back home.

The main problem with Water Baby as compared to the original Minx books, is that it plays in the shallow end of the pool. The stray thoughts from the three main character aren’t very complicated . . . particularly Jake, who winds up swapping spit with a random girl at a Georgia rest stop, and she ends up jumping into the pool with the others. In the end, nobody really learns anything, which is a sharp departure from the other Minx offerings.

While his story can barely tread water, Campbell’s artwork is serviceable, from the expressive faces to Brody’s metallic leg. The story feels like it would read mostly the same had the shark not snacked on Brody. But if that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t get to see Brody’s surreal dreams full of sharks; regular sharks, sharks with legs, Brody and Jake as sharks, with poor Louisa as bait in a few sequences. The book can’t hang ten, but those dreams keep it from wiping out immediately. Here’s hoping the other five books manage to ride the wave much better.