Since the launch of Rippaverse Comics, the instant fan favorite was Yaira–probably because we have a woman who was allowed to be sexy without being sexual. The Rippaverse seems to be built on its secrets, which is fine if they pay off. Yaira has been shrouded in mystery. Not having access to the comics due to my current financial situation, I’m pulling info out off of the Rippaverse website and the Rippaverse wiki, because of course there’s a wiki for the most talked about indie publisher since Image Comics began. While many of the company’s critiques come from those invested in the failure of Eric “Youngrippa” July’s company due to disagreeing with his politics and past criticisms of the how the comic industry operates in the early 2020s, there have been concerns even among those who want him to succeed.
He seems to be succeeding rather well. Yaira #1 has already blown away Isom #1’s debut campaign by reaching the $1mil mark in one day. People are really excited to find out who this character is. There were cosplays just from the announcement and a set of oversized preview trading cards. Her previous appearances have not made her look the hero. In Isom, she’s attacked Isom, believing him to be a member of the supercops of Alphacore, who already told her to stay out of the city that is the heart of the Rippaverse thus far, Florospark in Texas. In turn, Isom thought Yaira was working for his enemies and both were wrong.
Yaira #1 is scheduled to be released in June, but why wait that long to speculate on the hottest name out there…no pun intended since ice appears to be part of her power set. Using the wiki, the live-action teaser trailer for the comic, and a little bit of guesswork, let’s speculate as to what Yaira’s whole deal may turn out to be. Right now only the character’s creator, Eric July, the writers of the book, Jen and Silva Soska, and the art and lettering team know for sure, but I feel like doing something fun today because today seems to hate me.
Let’s start by watching the trailer, and the making of the trailer. Unlike the previous books, Isom #s 1 & 2 and Alphacore #1, this trailer is in live-action rather than animation. I guess when your comic writers are also low-budget horror directors it seems more appropriate.
One thing to really note is that Yaira and her alter-ego, archeologist and biologist Dr. Sally Rodell, has what appears to be a thick accent that people have called Slavic. It was thought to be her portrayer’s natural accent until the behind the scenes came out and Morgan Boot was shown to not have an accent. So this was a purposeful choice. Why, when the character isn’t from that region of the world and until recently operated in Texas?
Part of the early campaign for Isom included that set of cards, written from the perspective of a mysterious entity called Doruman. He’s just started observing Earth, and only knows slightly more than the audience about what’s going on with Excepts, people with superhuman powers. Think the Ultras from the Ultraverse or the metahumans of the DC Universe. From his observations, which appears to be a bit of his own guesswork, Yaira is ancient as well as an alien from a yet undisclosed planet. It could be her homeworld’s accent, which she hasn’t lost in the time she’s been on Earth, or just where she studied and developed the accent. We won’t know until the book comes out, and it’s not something mentioned before according to the wiki. This could be something the Soskas came up with, as they directed the trailer.
Speaking of the trailers, why does everybody like to show Yaira dropping Isom on that car?
So what else do we know? Yaira, or rather Doctor Rodell, was a consultant for Projexus, the big company in the Rippaverse. Apparently they have an issue with the local Except-hiring gangster and Isom villain, Darren Fontano, but nothing specific is listed as of this writing. We know nothing about Projexus beyond that, the fact that Isom’s sister and the missing girl that’s part of the current “Ill Advised” story arc in the first few Isom comics, both work or worked there, and that it was founded by Lincoln Eusbio. Beyond that, nothing right now. Whomever is running the wiki didn’t update with the trailer info yet, apparently, because Sally Rodell isn’t mentioned in Yaira or Projexus’ entries, though Yaira’s entry does mention her work with Projexus. (Also, they seem to use the same logo style as the Rippaverse logo lettering.)
What about Yaira herself. In addition to being an ancient alien (someone at History Channel wants to talk to her badly) and her job with Projexus, we know at least some of her powers. She can breathe in space, or at least survive without air for a long time, fly, has superhuman strength and speed, a long life span, and “cryokinesis”, in this case getting ice from her pores to use as a weapon. Not the grossest thing I’ve seen come from a human body in a comic this week, but that’s because I started reading Prime recently. She’s also a genius, using her long lifetime to learn archeology and biology.
What of Yaira’s “superhero” costume? We don’t really see her in it much, going for the hoodie in the teaser and a cropped t-shirt in the comics thus far. Is it the outfit she wore when she came to Earth? Was she also a hero like Avery Silman was before her retired as Isom to become a farmer? (“Isom” is old English for “homestead”, which may be where his namesake, July’s grandfather, got the name from, but it fits Silman.) Why did she stop if so? If not, what did she do to tick off Alphacore enough to kick her out of town but not arrest her? Why didn’t they arrest her? I have no answers for this, but I do at least have a theory as to why she’s trying to murder that girl, Stephanya Martinez.
Who is she? Beats me. All we know about her comes from the trailer, where she spits a light beam into the sky (because light beams into or from the sky are rather big in sci-fi at the moment), and then Yaira comes to one-punch her to death. Stephanya is rather shocked by it, and seems to be in pain. The police are keeping everyone back waiting for Alphacore to deal with the lady with the powers, but Yaira comes in and tries to kill her until Alphacore tells her to stand down and the trailer ends. Apparently they didn’t have an actor for Alphacore leader Brian Solari since they used his animated trailer voice actor off-screen. The wiki hasn’t been updated with info from Alphacore #1, so they’re not much help.
Here’s my theory, and it comes from two interesting muses: Iron Man and the aforementioned Prime. What if Yaira/Dr. Rodell learned that Protexus was trying to create more Excepts, or do something to the existing Excepts? Finding this out, Yaira decides to wipe out Protexus’ Except force. We do know that Fontano was so busy hiring Excepts as his enforcers that even Doruman took notice of him despite his lacking powers. Perhaps Protexus had their own ideas for Excepts, which is what we see is going on with Prime, though as of this writing I’m not far enough along in the Ultraverse to know all the details. All I know right now is some scientist experimented on kids and Kevin was one of them. If something similar is happening with Protexus, Yaira might be going for the “scorched Earth” approach in the same way Tony Stark did when he found out his Iron Man armor designs were stolen and made available. He even went after SHIELD for designs taken and ones he made himself, going rather extreme and crazed in his mission. Yaira could be doing the same to the Protexus Excepts.
Also of note is Martinez. She spits a beam of light into the air, clearly in pain or fighting control. Yaira trying to kill her could be her just assuming she’s evil, or not having any choice in that she had to stop the beam or something. It’s also highly possible that, as some are suggesting based on her actions, that Yaira is not a hero but a villain of some kind for some undisclosed reason. It wouldn’t be the first time a story followed a villain. One of the critics on that end, cheering him on but questioning some of the previous story choices and worldbuilding exploration, is the Literature Devil, creator of his own comic series starring supervillain Doctor Alpha. If I understand correctly, Alpha is a former hero who became uninterested in the modern “heroes” and turned evil, though his son is still a hero. Even the Joker had his own comic for a while. We could be following a villain who is misunderstood or herself misunderstands the situation…or maybe she’s been right all along. Like the origin of Darth Vader, this could be a negative character arc. Even Doruman’s records question if she’s a hero, nothing that he saw her kill armies (plural) of men, and yet he’s not convinced that she’s evil while “every relationship is short-lived and tactical”. The thing is, we don’t know why Yaira is on Earth and what her actual mission and goal is. This is what Yaira #1 or later books will have to address to keep us interested besides “hot blonde badass”.
Anyway, that’s my theory. What’s yours? What do you think Yaira’s all about? And if you’re Eric July or the Soska Sisters, anything you can tell us that helps without breaking NDA or being a huge spoiler, feel free to drop a comment. Yaira #1’s preorder campaign is scheduled to be filled 5/26/2024. We’ll see then if the book has any answers…or just more questions. Right now I think we have enough questions.
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