Josie’s got a gun….
Creative Staff:
Story: Joelle Jones, Jamie S. Rich
Art: Joelle Jones
What They Say:
Josie is a happily dedicated housewife and mother in 1960s suburban Seattle—but she’s keeping a secret from her family: she’s also a contract killer with nerves of steel! But when the tables turn and she finds herself with a target on her own back, she looks for answers from another mysterious, deadly woman!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The confrontation between Peck and Josie begins as he points his gun on her and offers to let her fix her mistake of not making her kill in the last issue. Josie instead suggests her other option is to just shoot Peck, but since apparently Josie doesn’t feel well about guns, Peck thinks she’s bluffing. Her response is to coolly assess Peck was the one to whine to Stenholm about her and lost control, a point she accentuates by delivering a swift, high-heeled kick to his face.
As their fight begins anew, an elderly man passing by stops and pulls a shotgun on Peck, and although his rescuing efforts prove fatal for him, it buys Josie enough time to escape in Peck’s car. She races home and resourcefully calls a neighbor to ‘report something suspicious’, taking the due diligence of neighborhood watch to her advantage.
Later, Josie takes her two girls on a drive to follow Peck, who has reclaimed his car. It leads her to end up at Chop Suey, a Chinese restaurant where from an afar booth hiding behind menus, Josie observes Peck briefly talking to the waitress Ruby. Ruby has no interest in playing anymore, but Peck reminds her she has debts. As he leaves, Josie knocks over one of her daughter’s sodas to get Ruby’s attention, and as the waitress arrives to take care of the mess, Josie shoves a pair of chopsticks intently in Ruby’s back and tells Ruby she knows who she is and to meet her at the docks at midnight. Josie then leaves with her children.
After a brief scuffle upon introductions at midnight, Josie points out to Ruby how alike they are and might be professionally, and that Josie is now a target and it’s clear Ruby wants out, but others don’t want her out. Ruby could end up just like Josie. Ruby agrees to help, but she gets to kill Peck when it comes to that. Josie agrees and Ruby suggests they’ll need more help, and so they go off to a seedy apartment building to meet Irving, fresh off two kills.
In Summary:
It seems like this is the penultimate issue, if the “Next Time: The Thrilling Conclusion!” at the end suggests. Part of me hopes not, I feel like we’ve just gotten started with Josie, but part of me also sees the value in this being a short, contained story. This issue was tight and fast with the action and pacing, and the Peck we’ve seen as previously smarmingly attempting to be charming is showing his real colors. For all his put on attempts to be flirtatious and not serious, he is still a cold killer at the end of the day and probably now taking a bit too much zeal in targeting Josie who has always rebuffed his advances. I’m glad Jones and Rich smartly chose to not make Peck and Josie have any sort of secret spy romance or attraction and for all intents and purposes Josie does seem to really love her husband. Gender Politics in Comics Alert!!!- Peck is like the hired assassin version of a 1960s Nice Guy who will be all smiles and flirt, until you reject him too much and then the gloves come off or things happen to prove his loyalty was never there.
I still want to see more of Josie’s backstory- how did she become a contracted killer? What is really ticking behind her perfected poker face? Maybe I’ll get my answers in the next issue. If we’re really winding down the end, I can’t help but feel Lady Killer would make a fantastic movie or mini-series with its 60s nostalgia, gender subversion of the spy/assassin tropes, and the fact that it’s been a rather tightly conceived and executed story.
Grade: A+
Age Rating: T
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 1st, 2015
MSRP: $3.50
