A new lease on life for Nancy Drew.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kelly Thompson
Art: Jenn St.-Onge
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Ariana Maher
What They Say:
Nancy Drew is seventeen and good at everything…ESPECIALLY solving crimes. But her totally-in-control-and-obviously-running-perfectly-smooth-(but-not-really) life hits a snag when a mysterious message drags her back to the hometown she left behind. There she’ll have to find out which of her friends are still her friends, which are enemies, and who exactly is trying to kill her…and (hopefully) stop them before they succeed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I grew up in the 70’s reading the Hardy Boys I also read a good number of Nancy Drew books (and lots of Encyclopedia Brown). I enjoyed a good mystery story and those that engaged in them as each young detective handled the mysteries in their own way. After really digging the team-up miniseries we had last year from Dynamite Entertainment, this new one stands on its own and comes from Kelly Thompson on the writing side, whose work I enjoyed in Star Wars recently, and Jenn St-Onge, marking my first experience with her work. And while part of me sees this style as a high-end version of what an animated series might look like, St-Onge brings a really great life to the characters through their movement and the expressiveness in their faces. I could easily get used to see this kind of artwork on a regular basis.
Placing the cast in their mid to late teens, we’re introduced to Nancy as she lives in River Heights and works with a couple of friends, Noah and Mia, doing a range of investigative work while still going to high school. The opening bit involves a team mascot putting in some bad moves on the team goat and Nancy solving that. It’s a bit awkward to start but it shows us a lot of how Nancy operates in dealing with justice, such as just trying to get people to do the right thing before bringing in the police, while also delving into the kinds of jobs she chooses. She’s running an agency on the side of good here and doesn’t want to engage in underhanded or problematic things. It’s only a couple of pages but we get a good look at Nancy’s life and you get ready to settle into it and what mysteries will be revealed there. At least before a letter with clippings for the text talks of her mother’s death and draws her back to Bayport for the first time in seven years.
Bayport is where things really come together as we get reconnections with her past with her best friend Bess that is excited to have her staying over before moving onto George, another friend that’s still resentful over Nancy’s having left before. I do like the dynamic we get here, and with George’s girlfriend Danica, as it shows how most have moved forward. We also get the Hardy Boys brought in to help as they too recently came back to Bayport and there’s some fun there with Joe and Bess apparently close to being a thing. The reason for all of this is still a mystery as the sender of the letter isn’t revealed just yet but bringing the group together as we do throughout it works really well – though I kind of wanted to get more with Noah and Mia before moving onto this. But Bess is so much fun and the use of the Hardy Boys just delights me.
In Summary:
I totally loved the serious and grim take we had on the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys in the previous miniseries we had but I am absolutely loving this Nancy Drew series. Though there is serious material here that it doesn’t shy away from it’s something that feels a bit lighter, a bit more accessible, and just absolutely beautiful to look at. Jenn St-Onge put together a great looking book that just made me want it to be a slice of life book to enjoy everyone hanging out and having fun together. But Kelly Thompson has given us the first tastes of the story to come and it takes a dangerously dark turn at the end. I’m excited to see where this goes.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 13th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
