Happy pride month, WWACers! Sapphics all over the internet need to read this book and start talking about it, right now! Grand Slam Romance 2: Major League Hotties by Emma Oosterhous and Ollie Hicks picks up where the first book of this series left off, amps up the magic, sports, comedy, and lesbianism to almost dangerous levels, and hits it out of the park!
Grand Slam Romance 2: Major League Hotties
Emma Oosterhous and Ollie Hicks
Abrams Comic Arts
May 14, 2024
If you missed the first Grand Slam Romance book, you should probably start with that, but Oosterhous and Hicks’s funny captions on the first chapter do a decent job of catching the reader up on the status quo. The Belle City Broads are celebrating their epic victory over their rivals, Mickey Monsoon has discovered their magical girl abilities (powered by pure queerness and love of the sport), and their childhood friend Astra Maxima is now their… roommate they have sex with. Not their girlfriend, though! They’re very clear about that. Right?
Anyway, the party stops when Mickey’s nemesis, Jasmine Von Schitz, smugly announces that, as a pitcher with powers, Mickey can’t play softball anymore without getting their magical girl license from the Magical Girl DMV in Switzerland! So Mickey, Astra, and their shared old flame Wolfgang Konigin head off to Europe to play in the Magical Girl League for the summer. The three of them have to navigate the complex snarl of multiple situationships and learn how to control their feelings-fueled magical powers when up against athletes who can literally perform miracles.
I’ve been reading a lot of sapphic contemporary romance novels recently, and what made the Grand Slam Romance books stand out to me the most is that they’re genuinely extremely funny, funnier than any novel I’ve read in months. I laughed multiple times while reading the first book and even more when reading the second one. The dialogue is hilarious, but the art also perfectly compliments it. There are a lot of very funny faces and poses and outfit decisions. There’s a really good moment when Mickey tries to transform into their magical girl form while lying to themselves and ends up in a clown costume they have to spend the rest of the scene wearing.
The most important aspect of a sapphic romance story is, of course, the sapphic romance, and Grand Slam Romance delivers in spades: everyone is queer and everyone is horny, to a degree rarely seen in contemporary media. Mickey and Astra and Wolfgang’s ever-shifting relationships have moments of genuine sweetness and care, but they’re also very physical and physically attracted to each other. The way their love triangle resolves is also something I don’t see often, but worked reasonably well here.
I need to reiterate: this series is extremely horny. There is a lot of sex, although no full nudity, and there is enough sexual content that I wouldn’t give this to a middle schooler (or shelve this in YA like the manager at the bookstore I used to work at tried to do with the first volume). These lesbians fuck in many locations, and configurations, and various states of undress. They also talk about their sex lives with a refreshing frankness and in a very funny way that did not make me cringe on sight. If you’re looking for a swoony sweet love story with a single climactic kiss, this is not the book for you. If you’re looking for a sexy comedy, this would be a great book for you!
In this volume, Mickey’s imperfect control over their newly-awakened magical girl abilities allows Oosterhous to visually represent their libido with pink sparkles, which is both hilarious and effective. Grand Slam Romance really takes advantage of both the text and visual components of the comic format to tell the best possible story they can. The magical girl transformation sequences pay clear homage to similar such sequences in manga, and the familiar trope is executed beautifully. The magical girl outfits are also very nicely designed.
Though the story revolves around the Mickey-Wolfgang-Astra triangle, the side characters complement them wonderfully. Major League Hotties introduces French-speaking heiress Gigi LaCreme; bewitching Wolfgang but not quite succeeding in making her forget all about her affections for Mickey and Astra. It also introduces the other members of the Magical Girl Leagues we didn’t get to see in the non-magical league focused first book, as well as from Astra and Wolfgang’s shared past. The supporting cast helps make the world of Grand Slam Romance feel full and realized.
If I had to criticize something about this graphic novel, it would be that the Magical Girl League’s problems and inefficiencies felt more told to the reader at the end than shown through the games or the lives of the players. I wasn’t exactly reading this book for the mechanisms of magical girl sports, but I did feel surprised when the characters called the League out on its problems because I didn’t see those problems earlier in the story. I would’ve appreciated a few more visuals showing what happens to magical girls after they retire from the league.
Overall, I really loved both books in this series, and I think more people should read them! If you enjoyed the humor and lesbianisms of the Locked Tomb trilogy of books or the sports and homoeroticism of webcomic-turned-graphic-novel Check Please!, you should absolutely give Grand Slam Romance a chance at bat.
