Leave it to Jaime Hernandez to get me tearing up for a wrestling story.

But he’s got a great finale reveal, which ties the series together as well as echoes back to Love and Rockets Prime. Even after deliberating establishing reveals are going to be a thing in the issue, the last one comes as a perfect surprise. Jaime plays around with time a bit here. He’ll have a person going to talk to someone, they’re there immediately having the conversation, but time has passed in between. It’s all about what’s happening off-page, between the panels.

And, of course, the wrestling. There’s a whole lot of wrestling this issue, starting with the second half of Xochitl’s first fight as Texas champion. It does not go well, and it turns out her rise to the championship was just a way for the wrestling organization to give their pick a suitable venue for the win. Worse, everyone knows about it except Xo and Gina. It’s a coming of age story for Gina, her first real glimpse into the sadness of experience.

There are some great scenes for Xo and Gina. Jaime also gives Vicki an emotional life chapter closing scene; he writes the hell out of it. He draws it beautifully as well, but the writing acknowledges the gravity of the character. Vicki’s been an almost literal superhero in Love and Rockets. Jaime does it well.

The comic’s serious, but Jaime uses foreground and background action to maintain humor throughout. The way the wrestling open works—how Jaime dissects the impact of a fight scene in a comic, how the presentation controls how it’s read; it’s an outstanding, masterful comic book. It also just happens to be pretty funny, emotionally impactful, and just wild, wonderful women’s wrestling.

The issue ends with a wrestling exhibition, where Jaime gleefully introduces multiple wrestlers before they start pairing off to fight. There’s a ring commentator—catchphrase, Whoa, Nellie!—who handles all the exposition, which Jaime writes really well. He finds the character’s voice immediately. Then he works up this momentum of the announcer’s fight narration, against the actual fight, against the contextual information the reader might not have. It’s exceptionally well done.

Whoa, Nellie! is not the comic I was expecting. But it’s very much exactly what I needed.

While I wasn’t “worried” about Whoa, Nellie! last issue, I was concerned creator Jaime Hernandez didn’t have enough story, just the impulse to do a bunch of women’s wrestling art. After this issue, two of three, I’m very sad there’s not a fourth because Jaime gets the story going, and it’s good. He also brings back Maggie from Love and Rockets to support the issue but still acknowledges she’s still a protagonist. I could make a comparison to a television spin-off, but it’d distract from what Jaime actually does with Maggie here.

The issue opens with backstory on Xochitl and Gina (finally). Xochitl was Gina’s babysitter, approximately ten years before Nellie! (and Rockets, because Gina being seventeen or eighteen puts a spin on things from that series too). They were great pals, and burgeoning artist Gina drew the duo as superheroes. Then one day, Xochitl wants to watch Aunt Vicki on the TV, and Gina gets a look at real-life lady superheroes. From there, Gina gets the idea they can be a wrestling team someday and sticks with it through to being a teenager, when they head off to Vicki’s training gym, where they become supporting cast in last big Maggie, well, Perla, story in Love and Rockets: Volume One.

So Jaime gives all the contextualizing he needs to give. They’re a team; they’re lady superheroes; nothing can break them up.

Except their first tag-team fight is a disaster, they get their butts kicked. Xochitl goes home to her family, Gina goes to high school, the mundane instead of the dreamed fantastic.

Maggie (Perla) is visiting Aunt Vicki, who tells her the whole family history of wrestling—which, again, informs Love and Rockets: Volume One to a degree—and how Perla was supposed to be the next great wrestler. That destiny allows Jaime to do a page and a half Maggie daydream a la Rockets; he’s doing character development on the star of his last series, who isn’t a regular in this series. It’s very holistic.

Because Vicki’s also got a character development arc. In fact, even though Gina and Xotichl have the action scenes—the wrestling—they’re not the focus. Vicki and Maggie sort of take over the comic, but all for Xotichl and Gina’s benefit. Maggie being there helps get Vicki to the character development precipice she’ll need to be in. If the comic’s going to be about Vicki’s expectations—or lack thereof—of Xotichl as the family wrestler successor.

Something Xochitl doesn’t know anything about.

It’s not a high drama comic. The wrestling’s pretty intense, but the combination family and vocational ambition drama—the stakes themselves aren’t high (yet), but the potential emotional repercussions for the characters is beaucoup. Jaime does a phenomenal job setting things up. I’ve got no doubt he can pull it off with just one more issue, but I still want more of this comic. It’s a delight. And has depth.

The Gina and Xotichl backstory stuff is phenomenal. Like, Gina’s lady superhero observation riffs on Jaime’s entire oeuvre to this point. It’s really cool how this series echoes back to Rockets. It’s not a spin-off. It’s… well, I guess it’s a Love and Rockets comic book like the cover says.

And, as usual, a darned good one.

Whoa, Nellie, one issue in, is just a Love and Rockets spin-off. There’s nothing wrong with it being “just” a spin-off; creator Jaime Hernandez has a great time with the wrestling scenes. The comic’s about would-be tag team women’s professional wrestlers Xochitl and Gina Bravo. They’re wrestler’s professional wrestlers; they’re just not a tag team. They fight each other. And Gina’s better. But she wants to do the tag team thing and refuses to give up on Xochitl.

Xochitl’s aunt, Vicki Glori, manages them. She wants Gina to do better and tries to engineer a path forward for Gina without Xochitl. Only Gina doesn’t want to do it. The biggest twist in the comic is when Vicki’s supposed to fight Gina—and elevate her—and instead has to fight Xochitl.

There’s some character material with Xochitl, who’s married with kids, and her kids don’t understand how wrestling works as far as the good and bad wrestlers. It drives a couple fun scenes. Vicki’s also got her character arc about being forced to betray niece Xochtil in favor of Gina. Gina doesn’t have much to do other than be a good friend to Xochitl.

Gina and Xochtil came into Love and Rockets relatively late in the series, and both had their initial story arcs mostly resolve (as I recall).

Jaime’s favorite material is clearly the wrestling matches, a combination of “realistic” (for wrestling) and comic strip pacing. He sets up sight gags, follows through, sets up some more. It’s a lot of fun and has a great pace. Doesn’t have any real drama so far—even with Xochitl and Gina getting in over their heads for the finale—but it’s really… nice. Even if you aren’t pre-inclined to a Love and Rockets spin-off, it’s about being good friends and trying to be a good mom and so on. There’s no malice, despite the chair-breaking wrestling matches. It’s very easy to like the characters and sympathize with them. Though, I suppose Vicki might seem like the villain unless you know her history.

But only might. Jaime gives her the most character development drama in her arc.

It’s a delightful read. Kind of slight so far, but also, who cares. The art’s great, with Jaime’s fun and enthusiasm welcome to the reader as well. The matches are great action. Yay, Nellie!.