A fun and crazy satisfying conclusion.
Creative Staff:
Story: David Avallone
Art: Esau Figueroa, Matt Gaudio
Colors: Brittany Pezzillo
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Bettie hunts an alien artifact and Soviet spies at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival! Will she manage to get Gene Kelly’s autograph and save the world? Only David Avallone and Esau Figueroa have been authorized to tell you the classified story, in this thrilling climax to Bettie’s French Riviera adventures.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Bettie Page series draws to a close (hopefully just for now) with this installment and it delivers everything that was promised early on and came to fruition once it really got underway. David Avallone clearly has had a blast in penning this script and it shows with the way the characters act and embrace everything, which Figueroa and Gaudio bring to life wonderfully. It’s dynamic and fun as we get a range of things for the characters to deal with and Brittany Pezzillo really delivers big time with some great colors that stand out, notably with some of the fancy movie premiere dresses and the like.
It’s definitely fun to watch as Bettie gets her film shown at Cannes and her acknowledging what kind of film it is but still just enjoying the experience. Even if she is surrounded by a bunch of goons with guns and Benway being all pushy in his slimy way about everything. He’s intent on getting the Star at this point and isn’t letting her out of his sight and she’s trying to figure out how to get McKnight back, even if it means giving up the Star. Thankfully, she has a kind of loose idea of a plan and just runs with the way a premiere can unfold and ends up getting close to a prominent Italian director in order to try and give herself a little cover and a little buffer for things. I love the interactions between the two and how Benway tries to insert himself into things but just comes across as creepy. It all works well until the Russians show up and it turns into a lot of chaos.
There’s a lot of simple but fun near-wacky action in a way as the various interests in the Star make their moves while they again underestimate Bettie as she keeps the Star safe. That allows for her to make a move on freeing McKnight and again it feels like some really good riffing on classic Bond material in a way that separates itself from it thanks to Bettie and Lyssa and their approach to everything. We’ve had some less than “real” elements in the series from the start and the Star certainly takes that to a whole other level here as its secrets are revealed and it touches on some past real science fiction elements but what grounds it all – as always – are the charms of Bettie Mae Page. She’s great to watch as she deals with how the alien represents itself to her and in allowing her for a few comical moments of sweet revenge. It’s a perfect ending.
In Summary:
My hopes at this phase is that Bettie Page as a comic property will get utilized like the Bond books in that we get a bunch of miniseries over the next few years instead of trying to support an ongoing work. David Avallone should have top choice for any future projects with it along with the art team that we’ve got here because they’ve got the tone done up great and I can imagine that this series will find some good lengthy life in the future through bookstore sales as new material for someone with a really good following that may miss out on single issue books. Quite simply, I want more of Bettie Page and I want it from this team – just in something planned for a tighter run without the worry of a series being canceled prematurely.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 28th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
