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Lady Killer #5
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: May 13th, 2015.
Written by: Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich
Illustrated by: Joelle Jones
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Coming into this series for the first time? Get caught up here!
It all comes down to this, the fifth and final issue of Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich's fantastic collaboration, Lady Killer. An advertisement for the Seattle World's Fair opens the issue up, a nifty little black and white vintage style promising all manner of futuristic attractions for those who attend. Josie and Ruby are there, posing as employees but interested not in the guests but in taking care of Peck and Stenholm. She really doesn't have a choice, it's them or it's her.
While this is going on, President Kennedy is delivering a speech being broadcast to the fairgrounds from Florida. Josie heads into the crowd and is surprised to see Gene there, their two daughters and cranky old mother-in-law in tow. Surprise! She sends them off to see the sights and splits again, but is followed. The showdown that we all knew was inevitable last issue plays out, but not as you'd expect it. Ruby and Josie and Irving and Peck and of course, Mr. Stenholm himself. Mother Schuller too.
No guns, it'll make too much noise.
A finale that's as violent as it is satisfying, things get decidedly bloodier than they have in the four issues prior with this last chapter. The script ties things together nicely but leaves the door open for another go round, but it does so with plenty of grace and style. Josie Schuller was an interesting character from the start and she's proven a smart, sexy and very capable female antagonist throughout. She's a feminist statement to be sure, even a role model in some ways, but never to the point where the politics and setting in which all of this explodes feels heavy handed or forced. It'd be a shame to walk away from all of that, particularly when Josie is written as well as she was in this run. The pitch black comedy that's always been a part of this series is on full display here again while the ties that bind Josie to her domestic life (as opposed to her real life) are once again a big part of what makes this a compelling read. But the violence, wow… Jones and Rich really don't pull back.
Artistically speaking, we're once again wowed by Jones illustrations. There are some pretty twisted moments in this issue that are rendered in perfect detail but so too are there are lot of neat little background bits and pieces that keep your eyes pouring through the panels. Setting things at the fair offers plenty of cool retro style art pieces to populate the backgrounds while Jones' ability to render the human element of the story as well as she does keeps the foregrounds alive with movement. Laura Allred's colors once again compliment the pencils and the inks in really impressive ways.
Cool, twisted, funny and consistently engaging, this was a good run. Here's hoping the creative team bring Josie Schuller back for more sooner rather than later. You can read Rich's missive at the back of the book for more on that. We don't want to steal his thunder (congrats Jamie and best of luck!).
