Lady Mechanika #3 – Review

By: Joe Benitez (writer and artist), Peter Steigerwald (colors) & Josh Reed (letters)

The Story: Lady Mechanika investigates a gypsy circus to find more clues to her origin.

Five Things:

1. Glorious art. – This is really a wonderful looking book.  The art is very much in the Marc Silvestri by way of Michael Turner style.  There are a lot of artists who were influenced by those guys, but most of them suck when they try to draw like Michael Turner (and there’s not much worse in comic art than poor Michael Turner rip-offs!)  Not Benitez!  You could almost convince me this was some long lost Michael Turner story (what a shame to die at 37!).  The characters are elegant and detailed as hell.  Love the creative steampunk designs and we get lots of dramatic poses and interesting page layouts (many with a large, highly detailed character kinda superimposed over the top of the other panels).  The art is reason enough to buy the comic.

2. Simple story that fits the release schedule. – Well….we’re not going to get this as a monthly comic.  It’s simply not going to happen.  So, let’s give Benitez huge credit for realizing that he needs to keep the story streamlined because you can’t have a complex story when we’re waiting 4-5 months between issues.  You could sum this story up in two words: Steampunk Fathom.  That’s it.  Mysterious and beautiful woman with strange powers trying to figure out where she came from.  I can keep track of that for the inevitable delays between issues.

3. A little talky. – For a simple story, it is a LOT talky.  The opening sequence takes several pages just for Lady Mechanika to have a brief conversation with a bunch of circus folk.  It probably is how they would actually talk, but it makes for a slow reading experience.

Lady Mechanika #2 – Review

By: Joe Benitez (writer & artist), Peter Steigerwald (colors) & Josh Reed (letters)

The Story: The beautiful steampunk android Lady Mechanika continues to explore her origins while being pursued by mysterious forces.

What’s Good: This can be a pretty fast review because the highs and lows of this issue are pretty glaring. The art is the reason to buy this comic.  Joe Benitez has really got his style figured out and his linework is gorgeous.  His Mechanika is just stunningly well drawn.  The style he is using is very reminiscent of what Michael Turner used to do on Fathom, so if you liked that, you should love this.  Everything is nicely proportioned and while he takes a few liberties with anatomy, the muscle groups are all there where they should be.  He’s showing a really high level of detail on his inks too.  And, Steigerwald is doing a great job with the colors too.  This issue is a visual treat.

And, the overall story is pretty neat too.  In a way, it kinda reminds me of a steampunk Fathom– sexy heroine, mysterious origin, ominous forces after her, possible larger agendas at play…  There really isn’t enough steampunk in the world of comics, so this is a very welcome addition.
What’s not so good: Holy crap is this comic wordy!  Sometimes wordiness comes from having lots of exposition and there is some of that, but most of the verbosity comes from just plain old excessive talking.  In some ways it is a little funny because this is how characters would talk to each other in the real world, but in the context of a comic book, it is just way, way, way too much verbiage.  On some pages, the letterer did yeoman’s work to not cover up Benitez’s lovely art with all the word balloons.

Soulfire #9 – Review

By: JT Krul (writer), Marcus To (pencils), Richard Zajac (inks), Beth Sotelo (colors) & Josh Reed (letters)

The Story: A super-powered teenage boy in a modern land of dragons and magic starts to come into his own with devastating results.

What’s Good: A caveat before getting into the review…  We were given this issue by the publisher and I’m not a regular Soulfire reader.  So, this review is my “coming at it cold” impressions.  Take it for what you will…

The story for this issue is pretty standard fare in terms of its general concept: teenage boy just beginning to realize his power is sought by the bad guys who want to tap/use that power.  During the ensuing battle, the boy unleashes his full might and overcomes all the bad guys, but with some nasty, unintentional consequences.  This well told story could have been pulled from an X-Men comic, but what makes Soulfire unique is that this story is set in a near future where dragons and magic exist.

I’m a huge proponent of comics outside of the Marvel/DC duopoly, so I give Aspen a lot of credit for doing something to distinguish this title because I (personally) don’t think there is a lot of room for more superhero fare.  But, neither Marvel or DC does much with this type of setting featuring noble dragons, so this is a niche that Aspen can exploit.  Plus it is probably appealing to readers outside the traditional comics demographic: 30-45 year old men.

I’m a fan of Marcus To’s art on Red Robin and I was unaware that he also was the regular artist on Soulfire.  That kinda makes me wonder how fast he works because most artists have their hands full with one title and even though Soulfire doesn’t ship monthly, it still represents an impressive amount of drawing from Mr. To.  While I think I enjoy To’s art in Red Robin more, this is very solid work featuring good layouts and storytelling.  A fantastical setting such as this also calls for more than the standard art and we get that.  Beth Sotelo’s colors are what really catch your eye with this issue.  She makes good use of brilliant whites and vibrant blues to accentuate magical things.

Lady Mechanika #1 – Review

By: Joe Benitez (writer and artist), Peter Steigerwald (colors), John Reed (letters) & Vince Hernandez (editor)

The Story: We are introduced to Lady Mechanika, a half-human, half-mechanical woman who is trying to learn about her past.

What’s Good: This issue was really good all over.  The story mostly just lays the groundwork.  We are introduced to Mechanika: The City of Tomorrow.  Mechanika is kind of a steam-punk metropolis in Britain during the late 1800’s.  I guess the story said it was in the “British Commonwealth”, but that is picking nits.  We pick up the story by seeing a teenage girl who is half-human/half-mechanical running from some goons who work for a nefarious (and nameless) overboss.  She gets away and finds her way to Mechanika where we meet Lady Mechanika herself.  Lady Mechanika is a kind of noir-ish adventure heroine who is half-mechanical herself.  Although she goes on adventures to kill werewolves and the like, she is mostly driven to find out who made her the way she is and why.  Naturally, this will bring her into conflict with the nameless overboss, but that will be a story for a later issue.

Benitez walks the tightrope of giving us just enough information to keep the issue interesting while not telling us the whole story and he does it well.  There is a lot of mystery here and you want to learn more, not only about the Lady, but about the world she lives in.

Lady Mechanika #0 – Review

By: Joe Benitez (creator, writer & art), Peter Steigerwald (colors) & Josh Reed (letters)

The Story: In a steampunky world, a mysterious & lovely mercenary comes to the aid of a half-mechanical monster.

What’s Good: The big attraction on this title is Joe Benitez’s art.  If you see the image on the cover and like that, you’ll probably like this book because that is pretty much what you get.  Everything is just very highly detailed: the guns have all these steam-punky hoop-a-joops all over them, belts are covered with detailed pouches, shirts have intricate buckles (the better to allow bosoms to heave) and goggles have individual little screws.  As we know, even with a high level of detail on the characters, art can sometimes run amok, but Benitez also does many things with unique panel layouts and backgrounds (or lack thereof) to help tell the story.  The color palate is very muted (mostly shades of gray), but that makes Lady Mechanika’s red eyes really stand out.  More comics go for that “stark red in a field of gray” look than actually pull it off, but it works nicely here.