At its heart, the graphic novel *Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, *which hits stores today, is a classic high school-hijinks caper. But rather than the typical trope of jocks facing off against geeks, it offers a different sort of high school rivalry: cheerleaders versus robots.
Adapted by Faith Erin Hicks from an unpublished manuscript by author Prudence Shen, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong depicts the war between a high school robotics club and cheerleading squad over school funding, and how Charlie, the laid-back basketball captain, finds himself gets caught in the crossfire. The result is a 280-page roller-coaster through high-school politics, sports, friendship, family, and a whole lot of robots.
In order to design the many, many robots illustrated in the book, Hicks did a lot of research, a process that involved, among others things, watching a lot of Battlebots. “I needed the robots to look competent and realistic, and like they could actually fight, but they still needed to be good design… Some of those robots [on Battlebots] are just incredible, but they’re so bizarre-looking sometimes,” Hicks told Wired.
Bots notwithstanding, Hicks’ favorite characters to design were the girls on the sinister cheer squad, which she wanted to transform into something more interesting than the usual “bitchy cheerleader” stereotype. “I decided I was going to draw them in a way that was powerful, and that was somewhat unusual.” The result is a group of memorable (and appropriately intimidating) young women, in uniforms that evoke a superhero team as much as an athletic squad.
From cheerleaders to chess clubs, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong makes a point of smashing stereotypes. While it would have been easy to frame the story as jocks versus nerds, Chen laudably avoids that shortcut. In high school, social cliques aren’t so clear-cut as mainstream teen dramas often make them out to be, and Shen and Hicks tap into that nuance to create incredibly well-realized and believable teenage dynamics. Charlie, the protagonist, is a basketball star, but outside of school, he’s just as likely to be hanging out with the robotics club. Nate is a nerd, but he’s confident and personable, and far from the bottom of the social totem pole.
Hicks herself spent high school struggling with labels. A home-schooled child who loved comics and grew up primarily around her brothers and other home-schooled boys, Hicks found it difficult to relate to the girls she met when she reached high school, and didn't begin to develop close friendships with women until her early twenties.
“I was very uncomfortable with being a nerd in high school, and my nerdish tendencies. Once I sort of grew up a bit and learned that it is fine to be a nerd, I was a lot happier.” She ended up dedicating Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong to “all the geek girls.”
Given free rein, what would Hicks like to write in the future? “Total wish fulfillment would be a space opera, just a sprawling science-fiction tale,” said Hicks. She’s dubious about her chances in landing that sort of story at a publisher, given the YA niche she’s already carved out. But then again, if there’s anything Faith Erin Hicks has proved, it’s how deftly she can smash stereotypes.
Disclosure: I have a prior professional relationship with Faith Erin Hicks, as editor of The Adventures of Superhero Girl and The Last of Us: American Dreams at Dark Horse Comics. Review copy of Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong provided courtesy of First Second Books.
