How ‘How To Lose A Guy Gardner in 10 Days’ Sells Your How to Tell Your Rom-Com Game

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, which means it’s time for DC to release an all-new anthology of shorts; this year filled with little romantic comedies starring all your favorite characters in DC’s How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days. The approaching Valentine’s Day means it’s also time for people to try and sell you romance related things, which means there’s no better time to talk about Weave Games’ Love is on the Cards!

It is appropriate that this anthology contains a story about Booster Gold shamelessly trying to sell audiences his vision of what romance looks like, for in this feature article, I will attempt to do the same. This Christmas, I and my partner at Weave Games (not to mention my romantic partner at Real Life) co-wrote and released Love is on the Cards, a two-player roleplaying game about creating and playing out your very own, holiday-themed romantic comedy.

In this article, I will be attempting to sell you this game by comparing the stories in How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days to the tried-and-tested formula for romantic comedies, which we have determined after watching many, many, maaaany hours of romantic comedies ourselves. Exhausting, grueling work it was, and you can all make it up to us by buying our game. Why wouldn’t you, I’ve linked it thrice!

The Formula

Love is on the Cards guides players through a typical act structure of a romantic comedy. We’ve broken it down into the following Acts:

1. The Trailer – In which players establish who their characters are, what makes the couple perfect for each other and what underlying issue might drive the Leads apart.

2. The Establishing Scene – In which the Leads have a conversation with a close friend, family member or confidante, letting the audience know who the Leads are and just what their approach to romance is.

3. The Meet Cute – A cute but memorable scene in which the Leads meet for the first time; a story to tell the grandkids…right before the movie introduces a twist, or a Bump in the Road.

4. Developments – A hodgepodge of scenes that contain a mix of everything from romantic scenes, changes in fortune and minor disasters.

5. The Disaster, and the Aftermath – In which something terrible happens, the result of which has the Leads believing that things are over between them, and a quick look at the days that follow.

6. The Grand Gesture – One or both of the Leads performs a Grand Gesture – something that is filled with emotional significance that overcomes the Disaster and gets the Leads back together again.

7. The Epilogue – Loose ends are tied up and the Leads have one last scene together, basking in the presence of each other’s company.

How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days

Vicki Vale has a great idea for an article: to write about what it’s like dating the worst superhero she can think of. The thing is, there might just actually be more to the outwardly brash Guy Gardner than meets the eye. Written by Kenny Porter, drawn by Nick Robles, colored by Nick Filardy and lettered by Travis Lanham.

This story has it all – the Establishing Scene, the Meet Cute (erm, for a given measure of “cute”), the Disaster, the Grand Gesture – everything! It’s impressive for something so short. It is helped, of course, by being based on the classic Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson starring How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but even so – it’s not easy to sell a simple but delightful story in only ten pages. 

Nick Robles’ art work helps this; the layouts especially. This story could have easily felt crammed, but the layout gives it just the space it needs to breathe – and changing things up for a montage here or a flashback there. Everyone’s appropriately cute, too – there is joy here, just the right amount of silliness for a story like this.

Bonus points for this story not forcing the romance: sometimes a happy ending ends up in a new friendship formed – Valentine’s day isn’t just for romance. There’s a lot of heart in this story, and it’s a perfect opening to this book.

Rating: 7 out of 7 Hearts. 

Robots Are Red, Androids Are Blue

Red Tornado finds himself alone again on Valentine’s Day. It’s not easy keeping up relationships when you’re an android who keeps getting destroyed and your memories erased. Fortunately for him, Batman’s come up with a new AI who might just understand what he’s going through. Written by Aaron J. Waltke, drawn by Ivan Shavrin and lettered by Josh Reed.

I have a special affinity for the Vision, and this Red Tornado story gives us basically that. An android feeling distanced from his family, who can’t make his relationship work because every time he’s destroyed his emotional attachments are reset, who ends up falling for a woman with the same personality engrams as a woman he’s in love with. This is a Vision story!

It’s also one with a lot of heart. It’s not just the main story of Red Tornado coming to terms with his failed relationship with his wife – it’s the little moments. Superman talking about his and Lois’ favorite restaurant. J’onn waltzing off with a bouquet of blue flowers. There’s a range of humanity Red Tornado’s given on the page – the art is cutesome, sometimes cool, but there’s a depth to it as well, Shavrin is very good at framing a good lookin’ scene. 

Going by the formula, it’s barely a rom-com, but it’s a charming story all the same.

If there’s one lament I have, it’s Batman’s offhand reference to his AI as a Bat-GPT. Barf. 

Rating: 5 out of 7 Hearts + 1 Chat-GPT-related Broken Heart.

Golden Pairs

Booster Gold is trying to make it as a romance advice specialist – but one bad review from a blogger who went on a bad date nearly tanks Booster’s business. Thing is, Booster’s a time traveler. Surely a quick jaunt to the past can fix everything? What could possibly go wrong? Written by Danny Lore, art and color by Ted Brandt and Ro Stein and lettered by Josh Reed.

This one’s all com, no rom, but don’t hold that against it – you know what you’re in for with a Booster Gold story. A man shamelessly trying to make a buck off of the Valentine’s Day spirit; is there anything more shamelessly shallow?

Anyways, as Love is on the Cards (available on itch.io!) would label it, we get a long Establishing Scene, a few positive and negative changes in Development, and a Meet Cute…that doesn’t go anywhere. Terrible for a rom-com, perfect for a Booster Gold story. The animated artwork, the silly captions, the goofy nature of this story – it’s a romp. 

It’s worth noting that Booster Gold’s whole schtick can very easily become annoying, but this story manages to avoid doing so, which is a feat in itself. It’s possible that he benefits best from short stories like this one, allowing writers to have their fun with him and get out before Booster can outstay his welcome.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Skeets, and two Unreciprocated Hearts.

Too Many First Dates

A “Flash”back to Barry Allen’s first date with Iris West. He wants it to go perfectly – and he’s going to mess with the timeline as many times as it takes to get it right. Surely a quick jaunt to the past can fix everything, right, Booster? Written, drawn and colored by Marguerite Sauvage. 

There is no Establishing Scene here. No Meet Cute, no Grand Gesture at the end – just the single romantic scene, though that scene happens several times. 

No one draws youth like Marguerite Sauvage – or brings in that sense of summer charm. It’s in the use of daylight. The young, charming, impossibly gorgeous faces. The softness of all characters on the page, from Barry to bandits to Gorilla Grodd himself. It’s soft, it’s sweet, it’s cute – and that soft sentimentality runs deep in this story.

Though the Development Stage of Love is on the Cards is the most loosely defined of all the stages, it’s an important one – it leaves room for scenes like this one. A moment of charm, of memories made – and the importance of letting them happen despite  (or even because of) whatever mishaps might come your way. 

Nothing goes the way Barry wanted it to. And, in the end, it couldn’t have possibly gone better. A perfect Valentine’s Day story.

Rating: 2 out of 2 Hearts, filled to bursting.

Never Been Kissed

John Constantine’s best buddy Gaz has never kissed someone – and John’s going to pull every trick he’s got up his sleeve to make that happen. Written by Alex Galer, illustrated by Darek Charm and lettered by Ferran Delgado.

There are many kinds of romance. An important one that is often overlooked by collections more focused on romantic love, is the romance of youth. Of nostalgia. Of remembering times when things were simpler, when small problems were the biggest things in the world, when you were too stupid and lacked the self-awareness to know how much of a little shit you were being. When the town you grew up in was the world, and it seemed like if you could just get a few little things right, you’d have the world in the palm of your hand.

This story speaks to exactly that kind of romance, a flashback to John Constantine as a little brat, before he grew up and his bad decisions had actual weight to them. The optimism of being a kid again, the boundlessness of dreams…and the heartbreak of remembering what’s been lost. This story is a gut punch you’re not expecting. 

Rating: 4 out of 4 Stolen Wallets.

Love’s a Stretch

Eel O’Brian’s does not have the best luck with women. Could the problem be, however, that he’s never taken a moment to truly figure out what he wants? Written by Dennis Hopeless, drawn and colored by Baldemar Rivas and lettered by Steve Wands.

In the traditional sense, this story is half a rom-com – it stops right at a Meet Cute, of sorts, as our Leads see each other for the first time in a whole new light. Leaving that structure aside, this is a complete story in itself, one that pokes fun at the quest for a perfect romance, and offers a glimpse at how to find something real. 

It’s my favorite kind of love story, and I want a hundred pages of it.

Granted, I have a certain fondness for diner romances – not to mention a certain fondness for any story involving Plastic Man, but this is a good story, right here. Baldemar Rivas delivers this gorgeous, polished old-school art style that blends seamlessly with a modern, shiny twist. It melds the kind of silliness that a Plastic Man story demands, while also grounding it with solid backgrounds and charmingly playful expressiveness from every character on the page.

It’s a story of a woman who comfortably, and consistently, calls Plastic Man out on his crap. Who sees past his silliness, past his heroism, past his lowest moments, straight to the person he is at the heart of all of that. It’s a story that tosses aside structure – there’s no room for it here – to linger on conversations between two people who, by the tale’s end, have the unique comfort of people who have known each other for years. It’s absolute gold, and my favorite of the bunch.

Rating: 1 Heart, stretched very, very far.

Say Yes to the Mess

Wonder Woman is sick of people staging crimes just to ask her out for Valentine’s Day. She’s tried everything, and now there’s only one thing left to do: say yes. To ALL of them. Written by Brendan Hay, drawn by M.L. Sampo, colored by Eren Angiolini and lettered by Becca Carey.

This one’s more of an anti-rom-com, and it throws the structure of one out entirely. It’s a simple gag, one of the more forgettable in this anthology, but it’s amusing nonetheless – and that’s the best that can be said of it, for better and for worse.

Rating: 3 out of 15 Misguided Hearts

Date Night

Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon just want one romantic evening off to themselves without having to get into costume to beat up the bad guys, but Gotham City has other plans in mind. Written by George Mann, penciled by Leonardo Rodrigues, inked by Joe Prado & Jonas Trindaded, colored by Hi-Fi and lettered by Carlos M. Mangual.

To be honest, I first expected this anthology to be filled with more stories like this one. Simple fan-service tales, filled with action and banter, showing off a fan-favorite couple doing the things they do best. This could be slipped into an issue of Nightwing or Batgirls without missing a beat. 

Everything about this story is just okay. It’s fun seeing characters I am fond of having a good time together, but this story offers little more than that – and leaves that much less to say about it.

Rating: 4 out of 12 Batarangs.

This anthology had a lot more great stories than it did middling ones, which is a fairly good standard for a book like this. All but one of them, however, followed the traditional rom-com structure, and if you picked up this comic and find yourself unsatisfied, well, we have the game for you. All you need is a standard deck of playing cards, a pencil and pen, and someone to play it with, and once you have those, well…Love is on the Cards.

The other takeaway, of course, is that love stories come in all formats, as this anthology clearly proves, and there’s value to be found in all of them. THAT takeaway, however, does very little for our sales, so I ask you to disregard it entirely.

A happy Valentine’s Day to you all, though – however you wish to spend it!