This article contains spoilers for Paper Girls season 1.
Paper Girls season 1 takes the show in a very different direction from the original award-winning comics by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson. Comic book adaptations are all the rage, and the best films and TV shows aren't necessarily Marvel and DC blockbusters. Paper Girls is a remarkable adaptation, with a much tighter character focus that makes the series a delight.
Vaughan and Chiang serve as executive producers on Amazon's Prime Video series, and they've openly admitted the goal was to create a series that was "Wikipedia-proof" (via the Los Angeles Times). Paper Girls deliberately deviates from the comics, maintaining the core character dynamics and themes, such as what Vaughan calls "anti-nostalgia," but it takes its four protagonists in a very different direction. The end of Paper Girls season 1 sets up a continuation that is nothing like in the comics, meaning nobody can do a quick Google search to figure out what's going to happen next.
The end of Paper Girls season 1 sees the four 12-year-olds scattered across time. The Prioress realized Tiffany Quilkin will grow up to discover time travel and decided to send her on a mission to rewrite history — one she hoped would erase the entire time war between the Old Watch and the STF Underground. Her betrayal of the Old Watch went wrong, however, with only KJ and Mac sent to that unknown future period. Tiffany and Erin instead wind up stuck in what seems to be the 1970s. This entire arc is an original one; in the comics, Tiffany is probably the least-developed of the Paper Girls, and she has nothing to do with the discovery of time travel. While the girls did visit the future in one arc in the comics, Paper Girls season 2 will logically bear only some similarities to that end.
Do The Paper Girls Go Back To 1988 In The Comics?
In the comics, the Paper Girls do indeed go back to 1988 in the end. The Old Watch believe they are destined to live out their old lives, but there are hints that the timeline has been subtly changed all the same. An older Erin revealed that the Paper Girls only worked together for a single night in the original timeline and went their separate ways after being returned, their memories erased by the Old Watch. But Paper Girls #30 ended on an optimistic note, hinting that the four girls would remain friends. It's only a subtle change — Mac, tragically, is still destined to die — but it's an important one all the same.
The Paper Girls TV Show Is Changing The Comics Ending
Paper Girls season 1's ending — separating Mac and KJ from Erin and Tiffany — is therefore headed for uncharted territory. It's a smart approach, not only because it means season 2 will be a surprise to all viewers, not just those who are unfamiliar with the comics, but also because it means the show will remain much more tightly focused in terms of its character work. Some plotlines will presumably carry on from the comics, with Mac learning her form of cancer is a rare and incurable one caused by time travel, but the entire Tiffany arc will ensure Paper Girls is very different.
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