A twist in the luck-wind.
Creative Staff:
Story: Lela Gwenn
Art: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Frank Cvetkovic
What They Say:
Cursed at birth, Charlene ”Chuck” Manchester hires out her own bad luck, providing disaster where someone else can profit. A warehouse job goes wrong—meaning Chuck destroys the place according to plan, but the authorities finally catch up to her—not to mention the curse she’s run from her whole life. A vengeful cult leader, a mob matriarch, and an insurance investigator on a quest finally have her where they want her. But Chuck won’t let bad luck stop her, even if she has to seek out allies she turned her back on a long time ago.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Bad Luck Chuck made some solid growth in the second installment for me as Lela Gwenn was able to get further away from some of the setup basics and more into the quirkiness of it all. I definitely like the cast that she’s put together and the fact that certain things resolve themselves here in the third issue means the bigger plays are still to come and that’s kind of exciting. Matthew Dow Smith continues to be ideal for this as I love the way he illustrates Chuck, especially when she goes through some of the training in the temple, as her disaffected expressions work wonderfully with what the monks are talking about and how Chuck talks herself, making it all come together just right.
Chuck getting picked up by the police with all that happened is a pretty interesting situation as it plays out. Without her charms and other tricks to keep the bad luck down she’s in a position where just drawing some helpful things on the walls is all that she can do and it does seem to help. More problematic at first is that Fayola is in the process of getting out of town with her money since Chuck can’t help her anymore but I like that Chuck’s one phone call is to her and to get her set up a safe house that’s a buddhist temple where she’s close to people there. It solves the problems in the short term for Fayola in getting her safe and out of sight into somewhere unexpected and it keeps Chuck on the job while she does her best to not be the reason the police station burns down.
Amusingly, her luck is spreading out elsewhere and Fayola’s mother is the one that gets caught up in it in a hilarious way as the building was investigated and turns out it had a meth lab in it. No matter the sheer amount of payoffs she’s made in the past, she’s in jail at least in the short term. Even more amusing is that Ean the insurance guy gets called out for covering the place without apparently even going there since the insurance would never cover a meth lab. That puts him on the outs as well. Which is welcome as we get to focus on Chuck being released and spending time at the temple. You know she’s probably tried before, multiple times, to make it work with what they’re trying to help her with there in regards to her luck, but she’s so unfocused and not interested in taking it serious that it does make for some good humor. But at the same time you get a little frustrated and just want her to handle it better as the ending page teases a bigger and newer threat to her life.
In Summary:
I continue to enjoy Bad Luck Chuck a good bit with all of its quirks and oddities. I’m still not on board for the big story as we get some new pieces added at the end and Fayola’s mother seems to have been sidelined for the moment so I’m feeling like I’m on less certain ground with that area right now. But when it focuses on Chuck, the temple, and time with Fayola, it all comes together beautifully. And a good chunk of that is Matthew Dow Smith’s visual design for the series with the characters really feeling very distinctive and appealing to watch move across the page. I’m looking forward to a good bit more of this.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 29th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
