Chadzilla ROARS!!! (The Official Blog of Chadwick H. Saxelid, Writer)

Lady Death #7 - 10

Because of a simple misunderstanding (I thought that I had requested that new issues of the Lady Death ongoing series be placed in my save box, but, in fact, I had not made any such request) I missed out on Lady Death issue #6. 

There was an important revelation in issue six, of course.  A revelation I missed because Life not only enjoys tripping a person, it also delights in kicking that person when he or she is down on the ground.

Life can be a real dick, sometimes.

So, what was this important revelation?

Hope/Lady Death's arch-nemesis, the Death Queen, turns out to be Hope/Lady Death's mother, Marion.

How bitter the irony, eh?  Hope/Lady Death's decades-long battle to avenge and free her beloved mother from hellish bondage is finally over.  She has won.  Her mother has been freed.  Only Hope/Lady Death's beloved mother appears to have been driven insane by the torments of the hellish realm where she had been imprisoned.  Marion is now the embodiment of the very same dark forces that her daughter Hope/Lady Death had battled to free her from.

While the Dimensional Portal, through which the Death Queen hoped to subjugate other realms, and the Infernal Engine, the weapon the Death Queen had planned to destroy all life in the Under Realm, are both destroyed, Wargoth's rebellion against the reign of the Death Queen continues.

And that's about it, really.  Hope/Lady Death is adjusting to being back in the Under Realm, but she is still far more Hope than she is Lady Death at this point in the series relaunch.  I don't mind that, because it makes the character a tad easier to relate to as Hope continues to try and reconnect with the being that she had been prior to her banishment from the Under Realm.  But she still has a lot left to learn about her "true" self and how to master her growing powers.

While these four issues had plenty of rousing action set pieces, they also had plenty of talk.  Talk that not only advances the plot from Point A to Point B in an economical fashion, but talk that also allows for some nice character development and strengthening.  The psychological and emotional toll the actions of both the Death Queen's reign and of Wargoth's rebellion have on the character's is treated as being every bit as important to the ongoing series as the blood soaked battles are.  Doing so gives some extra emotional depth and psychological punch to the "true motivations" behind the continuing political maneuvering and double crossing that happens in each and every issue.

Doing so also helps Lady Death continue to be an entertaining and engaging Dark Fantasy adventure series.

Lady Death #0 - 5

"...Lady Death is no longer with us."

The Death Queen has stolen Lady Death's powers and face (the face is a mask, actually) and banished the former ruler of the Under Realm to Earth, circa 1351 A.D.  Now more or less a mortal being with no memory of who or what she was, the former Lady Death lives the life of a beautiful and shapely soldier of fortune named Illadra.  

All those unfortunate enough to meet or befriend Illadra come to bitter ends, for what once was has not truly been undone.  Illadra is and always will be Lady Death, and no amount of magic can change that.  The more she learns of her past and of her powers the more determined she becomes to not only regain what has been taken from her, but also to have her revenge.

I think that about covers it.

There is a lot that I can say about Lady Death, but the one thing that I cannot say about the book is that it is boring.  Each and every one of the six issues (or seven, if you wish to include the free teaser that set-up this relaunch of the popular character) was bursting with colorful and bloody carnage, heroic daring-do, nefarious villainy, and monsters.  Lots and lots of monsters.  There are werewolves, demons, ghosts, giant scorpions (that appear to have wandered in from Clash of the Titans) and even a giant man-eating plant (that bears more than a passing resemblance to Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, only it doesn't sing).  There was plenty to keep me entertained and picking up new issues.

The Lady Death character has been knocking around comic book stores for about twenty years now, but this was the first time that I ever actually read more than a single issue that was her very own.  Most of my past run-ins with the character were usually when she would pop up in a crossover to do battle with some other popular cheesecake character, or whenever a particularly nice cheesecake cover caught my eye at the comic book shop.  The last time that I reviewed a Lady Death comic was way back in March of 2007, so I do not think that I qualify as a true Lady Death fan.  Up until now I was just a Lady Death curious reader.

Now I think that I am a fan.  I use think because, while there is more than enough bloody carnage, monsters, and cheesecake to satisfy my B-movie sensibilities and keep my interest up, I find myself wishing that there were a tad more characters and world building detail in this ongoing story.  Having characters be introduced, only to then have them around for a mere two issues, at most, before their being violently dispatched by whatever the threat was in the latest issue did get a bit off putting.  I happened to like some of those characters.

Then again, this a supernatural adventure series.  So who is to say that these characters are truly dead?  Not I.

I suspect that there are several characters being developed beneath all of the juicy blood and thunder of Illadra/Lady Death's current quest, as there have been several characters that keep popping in and out of the ongoing story.  A character named Tormina keeps showing up and Wargoth, a character from Lady Death's past that I noticed I mentioned in my past reviews, has also shown up.  So I think some truly epic awesomeness is definitely coming down the story line.

Lady Death Annual #1

"Some vacation..."

Lady Death, Satasha, and Wargoth decide to take a night off from their battle against Sagos and rest up at Castle Alcazar, the guests of one Count Flazino.  Unfortunately it is that very night that a hood wearing behemoth chooses to crawl out of his grave and attack the castle.

Coming from the perspective of someone that knows next to nothing about Lady Death and her adventures, I feel confident in recommending this stand alone story to be a good place to see if whether or not the gray toned lass is your kind of comic book heroine.  The story doesn't require any knowledge whatsoever of the current status quo of the book and all the important information that is needed for a Lady Death newbie to understand the who, what, and why of the primary characters and their current quest is unobtrusively slipped into the early scenes, as are some expository hints of the behemoth's character.  There are also some funny character based moments sprinkled throughout the tale.  My unfamiliarity with the characters did not stop me from understanding the jokes, or the action, and the conclusion had me interested in finding out what happens next.  I can't give any higher praise than that.

But a cheesecake laden Dark Fantasy book lives or dies by its artwork, rather than its writing.  And that statement is not meant to be a snide dismissal of Brian Pulido's script, far from it.  But if the book's title character is a hot chick with a sizable chip on her shoulder and an industrial strength can of whoop ass in her hand, then her looking the part is integral to the book's success.  Artists Richard Ortiz and Daniel Hdr do Lady Death justice, blending plenty of T&A titillation with generous amounts of Gothic imagery.  Newton Barbosa's inks and Chris Mendoza and Mark Sweeney's coloring are also top notch, with some deep, rich blacks and crimson reds filling the panels.  Lady Death (the character as well as the book) is simply gorgeous.  I think I'm going to enjoy reading this series.

Lady Death: Sacrilege #0

"It's actually growing."

Hope (a.k.a. Lady Death herownself) and Satasha agree to help the city of Trembula deal with a rather unique problem.  For a hefty fee, of course.  It seems that the local church has begun to grow.  Not its congregation, the actual building.  If it isn't stopped, the church will eventually envelope all of the Blacklands.

This is the first Lady Death story that I've read, although I have brushed up against her once or twice when she went toe-to-toe against Purgatori (my first, and only, true Chaos Comics love) and, at a different time, in a different book, Vampirella, and, as is the case with all first times, it got off to a somewhat clumsy start.  The issue begins with a grammatical error, Lady Death says became instead of because, so glaring that it had me paying just as much attention to looking for other mistakes (there weren't any that I could find) as I was to the book's unfolding story.  As far as that is concerned, it's an interesting set-up, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Hope and Satasha do battle with this rather unique threat.

On an entirely different level, I'm just looking forward to seeing Hope and Satasha again.  Readers of the book will understand what it is that I am talking about.  If you have a craving for a certain kind of cheesecake, Lady Death will certainly satisfy.  Yum.