The Fox Rides Again.
Creative Staff:
Story: Alex de Campi
Art: Rey Villegas
Color: Morgan Hickman
Letters: Alex de Campi
What They Say:
Lady Zorro is called back to Alta California to recover a sacred Indian war axe, stolen by mercenary soldiers. Only she can stop an all-out bloody war across the ranchos, and more deaths like the one that consumed her family… if she can stay on mission! But when an opportunity for ultimate vengeance presents itself, can she ignore it? Or will the fire to put her greatest foe six feet under a preacher consume Lady Zorro… and all of Alta California with it? A violent, sexy tale of intrigue and swashbuckling as the female Fox must use all her assets to get herself out of trouble
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Zorro must travel to Spain to play for his lands in a card game against the Condesa Estruc, who has bought, won, or stolen the majority of ranchos in Alta California. However, he doesn’t leave the country unprotected. He enlists the aid of Esperanza Borges, or Lady Zorro as she is better known. The Condesa has hired German mercenaries to watch over her estates and clear the land of the natives, and during this purge the mercenaries stole a sacred Chumash weapon, the Eagle Axe. Zorro asks Esperanza to steal back the axe, but when she discovers that the head of the mercenaries was the man who killed her family and destroyed her village, she may become too clouded with revenge to save Alta California.
Although Lady Zorro was created by Matt Wagner and John K. Snyder III, this is the first time I’ve read her. Thankfully, she’s being written by Alex de Campi, so she’s in good hands. Esperanza is smart, beautiful, driven, and very angry. This anger is what drives the story. While the tale begins with the MaGuffin of the Chumash axe, it ends up being about her desire for revenge and whether or not she will let the world burn in order to achieve it.
The issue moves along at breakneck speed. It takes all of five pages to establish the setting, the characters, and the initial conflict. It also establishes quickly why Esperanza is the protagonist and not Zorro and does so in a way that doesn’t condescend to her gender. It’s not that she is uniquely qualified for the job because she’s a woman—it’s that she is a capable person that Zorro trusts to do the job while he is off doing something else.
Returning to the pace, the story also provides us with Esperanza’s backstory in a quick-yet-organic manner and even sets up a potential love interest for her. Overall, this pacing works well as it makes this a fun and exciting reading experience, but there were a few times when it felt a little forced, as if the story wanted to get past the establishing stuff and jump right into the action. Those moments also feel like they rely a bit too much on the reader’s familiarity with story tropes to help gloss over areas where it could have slowed down to provide a bit more context and exposition.
Perhaps the best example of this is the Chumash Eagle Axe. We are told that it is a relic and that it must be stolen back from the Condesa. Its importance is implied because of the lengths they go to acquire it, but why it’s important is unclear. At the moment it serves more as a plot point than an organic part of the story. It establishes the reason for Esperanza to become Lady Zorro once again and puts her in the situation where she can now exact her revenge, but that appears to be its only function.
Naturally, the standard proviso that this is a single issue in a run applies here. It could be that the axe does play a role other than MaGuffin, but we aren’t privy to that information yet. As it stands right now, though, it feels like a plot point that was rushed.
Even with that issue, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this comic. The speed of the story kept me engaged, and the character Esperanza is compelling. And the art by Villegas and Hickman is excellent. Villegas does a great job with facial expressions and body language as well as pacing and plotting action scenes, and Hickman’s colors really bring the art to life and subtly establishes mood.
In Summary:
Lady Zorro 1 is good, old fashioned swashbuckling fun. While the pace of the issue sometimes hurt the overall story, the strength of the character, the great action, and the art of Villegas and Hickman make this worth reading. I know I’ll be back for issue two. Recommended.
Grade: B
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dynamite
Release Date: July 16, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
