Jenny, full of ancient sake.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dave Dwonch, Brockton McKinney
Art: Magenta King
Colors: Megan Huang
Letterer: Dave Dwonch
What They Say:
The student meets her mentor when Jenny discovers one of her father’s oldest friends, Aiko, has been waiting for her to sober up long enough to teach Jenny the ways of a true Drunken Master. Meanwhile, Fujimoto finally unearths the Action Science Police’s dirty secret—but is it too late to save Jenny from the fallout?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Dave Dwonch and Brockton McKinney presented a strong if kind of crazy opening issue that in its second installment felt a bit more complicated and hard to track at times. It didn’t hold me quite as strongl but I was still interested to see what they’d bring to the page. It’s a crazy mix of western comics and Japanese manga with a flair of European style mixed in that definitely worked well both in story and visual design. Magenta King and their artwork continue to be one of the best parts of the series and that definitely plays to the mix of styles in a good way with a lot of detail and some solid flow to the panels and layouts. It also helped that Megan Huang really did a great job of bringing the artwork to the next level with her color design.
Events here are moving in a pretty clear fashion and it works better for me as it’s a little more straightforward. We get to see Alpha Major as he basically tries to put the heat on Jenny’s friend about her connection with Jenny in order to find her, but she doesn’t know anything about where Jenny went because she was smart enough to not know. We do see that the General is doing his best in his own way to protect Jenny while trying to get her to see their way of doing things but the higher-ups at the ASP are displeased by this and have used some shenanigans in order to read his mind without him knowing about it, which allowed them to discern her location. That puts the good general in a bad place now for disobeying orders during a critical period and it’s not going to go well for him.
For Jenny, she’s remembered a time a few years prior when a woman named Aiko came to her after her father died, offering to help her. She’s now remember the remote location that she’s at and has gone to see what kind of help is being offered. It’s a traditional kind of cliche piece of the ancient training grounds hidden deep in the mountains, but Aiko’s personality makes it work and she’s able to get under Jenny’s skin quickly and help her realize what her potential really is if she can just shake off some of the garbage she’s holding onto. Which isn’t hard once Alpha Major and his goons show up to cause trouble, thinking that everyone there is just going to be a pushover. Seeing real resistance and seeing Jenny not just panic and react but instead act in a clear and distinct way helps to make her a lot more enjoyable to watch.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like with Jenny Zero but I’ll be somewhat envious of those that are able to just read the whole thing when it’s done. It’s a fun series monthly but I can see how it’s going to read better when you get to consume the whole thing. Jenny has a good storyline in this issue and is a lot of fun to read but that’s largely as she plays against Aiko and has a strong personality to work with. The ASP material we get is interesting but falls into a familiar pattern so there aren’t any real surprises here, though it’s well-executed. It continues to grow at a good pace and is engaging throughout, both in story and artwork.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 7th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
