A new mystery begins!
Creative Staff:
Story: Corinna Bechko
Art: Jonathan Lau
Colors: Vinicius Andrade
What They Say:
The Golden Age heroine returns! New York during the second World War is a place of mystery and intrigue, but with all our boys fighting in Europe, who will stand up to the forces of darkness at home? Miss Fury is ready to step into the breach, but even she doesn’t understand the shadow she carries within herself. Is it a force of good or of evil? And can she learn to control it in time to stop the deadly attack that threatens to destroy the Big Apple?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After getting some exposure to Miss Fury through some of the events last year from Dynamite Entertainment, I found myself in a position of really wanting to see more of the character. While I haven’t done a deep dive on her history in comics and all that, I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far and was really curious to see if they could launch a new series for her that would stand on its own and be accessible to new readers. Working in the 40’s is damn hard for comics, or more that there aren’t a ton of readers wanting to dig into the time period, but there’s a lot of appeal in going things that are a lot simpler in some senses in regards to the scale of the world and stories that can be told. It can be a lot more personal and engaging by working smaller rather than bigger.
The opening issue sets up a good bit of material even with some flashback material that just felt a little out of place at first. Taking place in New York City in 1942, we’re introduced to Marla Drake as she operates as a senior marine engineer with her own firm doing work for the government. While she’s not engaged in top secret designs, she’s not doing what most other engineering firms are doing in near busy work to churn out designs for the various branches of the military. Her office has suffered a break in and blueprints were stolen, resulting in her using her alternate identity of Miss Fury to track them down, though that just leads to its own problems. What we do get from it is a really strong action/chase sequence that shows us what Marla is capable of and just how good Miss Fury is at presenting herself while not being an end all be all type of hero of the day. She’s good but not perfect and it plays very well here through Lau’s artwork.
The book does a kind of awkward job of introducing Mr. Corey that Marla is working with as we get him in 1942 and he plainly knows who she is and what she’s capable of as Miss Fury, though she’s deflecting on it. This goes back to some time she spent in his home city of Rio de Janeiro a year before for work and while the two did not hit it off it did turn into an area where he realized what she was capable of. It’s a good way of exploring Marla in this form and showing us how she handles herself while also getting us out of the US for a bit to something different. It also works to connect us to Corey in 1942 and why he’s there while also pushing us forward into the mystery of the blueprints and who was after it, which certainly ends on quite the cliffhanger here.
In Summary:
While I’ve struggled with some of Bechko’s works before it feels like she’s firing on all cylinders here and completely gets Marla and Miss Fury. The story is straightforward as a mystery that ties to the time well but has enough of an international flair to carry it larger. We don’t dig deep into her character but what we get is certainly tantalizing enough to leave me wanting a whole lot more as I think they’ll deliver. What takes everything up several notches is Jonathan Lau’s artwork and some striking color work from Vinicius Andrade that really enhances everything. Lau’s got a great sense of layouts and dynamic action in these early pages with the white backgrounds to give it all more impact and I really dig his presentation of Marla in both her normal and Miss Fury form. I’ve enjoyed his work before from Dynamite but this looks like he’s stepped up his game even more with what’s here. Very exciting stuff!
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 6th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
