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Lady Killer #2
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Written by: Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich
Illustrated by: Joelle Jones
Released on: February 5th, 2015.
Picking up where the first issue left off, Josie Schuller is working 'undercover' at a certain club, all decked out like a sexy kitty cat serving cocktails to men and telling them her name is Crystal. One man makes a pass at her and she puts him down but later hands him a note telling him to 'meet me in the cloak room.' He excuses himself from the table and does just that, and is promptly attacked by Josie. He fights back and gives her a pretty serious beating, but she's not about to let her mark get away. She finishes the job.
Peck shows up, dressed like a driver, and helps her get rid of the body. He tells her that Steinholm, their boss, wants a chat with her this coming Friday. She arrives at the meeting, he chats her up and then discusses what a detriment it can be in this business to let family life get in the way of one's professional life. He hands her the next assignment he has for her and sends her back out into the world, and she heads back home…
The focus of this issue is very much just how Josie is going to balance what she does in the family home she's responsible for keeping up versus what she does outside the home, a career her family is completely, and likely blissfully, unaware of. It helps to give her some depth and to ground her character, which is only a good thing. The opening sequence in the club in which we see Josie in action are exciting and violent and fun and tense, but the series is more interesting, so far at least, when it deals in character development more than action.
The writing by Jones and Rich is rock solid. There's a nice sense of dark humor here and they duo do a fine job of giving the book a bit of a feminist slant, at least so far in that Josie is a strong, independent woman capable of all sorts of things and most of the men she encounters are sloppy misogynist pigs (the guys in the club) or so wrapped up in the traditions of the day that they can't imagine Josie would be anything but the perfect housewife she appears to be (her husband). Much of the humor stems from her interactions with these men, and these moments are well written, funny, and also completely believable.
The artwork is just as good here as it was in the first issue. Jones applies lots of great detail in each panel and seems to have a real knack for creating expressive and emotional content in the way that she draws her characters' eyes. Josie's got these cat-like green eyes that can be sexy or funny or threatening and the way this is used throughout the issue is just one of many interesting little details scattered throughout the book. The coloring from Laura Allred enhances the artwork really nicely, all of the hues and tones used in the fashions and the furnishings feel very appropriate to the era in which all of this is taking place. It's good stuff and it definitely ends in a way that makes us want to come back for the third issue to see what happens.
