She’s a killer queen…
Creative Staff:
Story: Joelle Jones, Jamie S Rich
Art: Joelle Jones
What They Say:
Josie closes in on the truth behind who really wants to end her life as a cheerful housewife, mother, and ruthlessly skilled assassin! Who is really behind the hit? And are they closer to home than she’d like?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We open with a black and while reel of Seattle’s World Fair, and it transitions to a blonde park attendant instructing a group of other female attendants on how to make guests feel welcome. Josie and Ruby are part of that group. At the dais where Kennedy’s Fair Opening speech is being broadcast, Peck and Stenholm sit and listen when Peck spots Josie in the crowd. As the two men give chase, Josie runs into her husband and kids. He brought them as a surprise, and while it momentarily stops her, he then goes off to let her get back to work and she runs into an empty exhibit. Meanwhile, Mother Schuller spots Irving and recognizes him to her shock.
Peck’s goons are waiting for Josie, but she makes quick work of them. Peck appears as smarmy as ever, and Ruby arrives pointing a gun at him. She tells Josie to go after Stenholm, Peck is hers. It’s against the plan, but Josie accepts. She meets Stenholm in another part of the exhibit, where they have a brief exchange of violence before Irving appears telling Josie to go help Ruby. Josie stabs Stenholm’s hand in place and Irving stays to babysit. Stenholm is horrified when he recognizes Irving as someone he knew.
Ruby is losing to Peck, and Josie intervenes but the two do not fair well and Peck delivers a literally crushing blow to Ruby as Josie looks on in horror. Even though it’s against her principals, she pulls a gun on Peck who threatens her family. Josie shoots in time for Mother Schuller to witness. She tells Josie she recognized Irving as someone she knew during the war, and is aghast that Josie is mixed up with him. Josie tells Mother Schuller they can talk about it later after she has changed clothes and gets cleaned up. She goes to say it’ll give Mother Schuller time to think about if she really wants to or should ask those questions.
At a later day, an Avon lady arrives at Josie’s door, and is met with the door in her face. Gene suggests Josie should think about doing something like that to earn money of her own, and Josie thinks going into business for herself is a grand idea. Something suggests she isn’t talking about selling lipstick.
In Summary:
I love how this ended in a scene mirroring how this series opened, and I will miss this short, amazing story. Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich managed to make a fairly feminist story in a not very feminist friendly era of mid-century America, and it totally works. Josie is complex, a strong fighter and doting wife/mother, she has layers, she has a past we never learned much more about, and is owner of her agency.
I still have questions like how she became an assassin, how she met her husband, what really happened in the past with her and Peck, and where will she go? These all don’t need to be answered, and the story worked without them, and I suppose I can make it up for myself.
If there’s one bit of criticism or two, we really got to know much about Ruby, so she felt more plot point than character. We don’t spend a lot of time with many of the characters, and even Josie is a bit of a mystery still. Due to the shortness of this series, a lot of the cast doesn’t get very fleshed out and action moving forward takes precedence over character-piece.
Overall though, I really enjoyed Lady Killer, and while five issues feel brief, it’s such a contained and well-paced story that I suppose it’s more an amuse bouche than a buffet.
Grade: A+
Age Rating: T
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 13th, 2015
MSRP: $3.50
