Life’s a beach for Josie Schuller….
Creative Staff:
Story: Joelle Jones
Art: Joelle Jones
Colors: Michelle Madsen
What They Say:
Josie accepts an offer to team up and discovers the partnership is a match made in hit heaven. But not everything is smooth sailing when the local hit squad discovers who her new partner is.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The mysterious stranger Josie recognized from the end of issue 1 while dumping her latest kill in the swamp turns out to be none other than Irving, the elderly hitman/cleaner who helped Josie at the World’s Fair in series 1. While he’s retired, the itch to work is still present so he comes with a proposal: to be Josie’s cleaner, since that part of the job isn’t quite her strong suit. Josie is reluctant, but he offers a trail run of cleaning the body that night and she helps him with a job the following Monday. They split proceeds and if she it’s not her cup of tea? She could always just kill him. Unsure of her instincts, she lets it be for now. That is until Irving shows up at the beach during an outing for the Schuller family to let her know he left her job spick and span. As one can imagine, Josie is unthrilled at doing business amidst her family.
Introducing himself as “Uncle” Irving, Josie’s husband Gene seems to buy it and they discuss business. As she tends to one of her girls, who’s fallen down and scraped herself during a foot race, we see Irving show the little girl a softer side of his persona as he tries to make her feel better. While looking for bactine to treat the scape, Josie finds a note requesting her presence.
At a bingo hall, she meets the mysterious man whose anonymously summoned her while trying to insist she’s just your average housewife…minus the stabby parts. As he praises her past work, Josie lets the pretense slip. He reveals an offer to her, that he’s from a group entrepreneurs running a union that cater’s to Josie’s kind and they want her to join, promising better jobs that are less beneath her. As things continue to move fast for Josie, is it an offer she can’t refuse? And will partnering with Irving make her work easier, or add further complications?
It’s looking like going into self-business isn’t quite as smooth sailing as Josie thought, with things going more unappealing and complicated than a tuna Jello salad.
In Summary:
I have to admit, I kind of like that Josie is struggling with the whole going solo thing and that it’s not as glamorous as she might have envisioned. I also enjoy the subtle complications Irving’s return and now this mysterious Murder Union Man’s offer to the story. Are they really here to help Josie, or are there other purposes at work? Assumably, the events of Lady Killer’s climax and Josie quitting from her previously employer most un-amicably are going to have some consequences that we haven’t seen yet. Could these seemingly helpful offers, two within days of each other, be part of it?
It’s interesting twice now they’ve called back to the World Fair events, so I’m hoping that’s what this is foreshadowing.
What I’m really liking though is seeing a bit more of emotion from Josie this time around. She’s usually a cool customer, but we’re seeing her show more frazzled moments, more tense worry, and a sense of less control of her circumstances that makes her now feel less perfect and more fallible, something that’s easier to relate to as a reader and definitely lends more to dramatic tension.
Other than that, Lady Killer 2 remains very much in the same, darkly cheeky vein of the first series: different kills of the week set within a not-too-complicated overarching story. Again, the thing I love about this series is it’s smart without requiring too much deep thinking, the art is great-looking, and the way it plays up mid-century norms to almost satirical levels is a thing of beauty.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: Sep. 14th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
