New leads move the story forward.
Creative Staff:
Story: Sarah Hoyt
Art: Madibek Musabekov
Colors: Ivan Nunes
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
What They Say:
Mystery abounds on the planet Camelot, and it’s up to Barbarella to unravel it all in order to save a secretly enslaved populace in what’s supposed to be a literal paradise. Answers will be forthcoming, but getting there will be half the fun—at least for you, gentle reader! And those answers may just bring down paradise…and lead to an even greater galactic evil! Love, lasers, and liberty—this one’s got it all, courtesy of acclaimed novelist SARAH HOYT and visionary artist MADIBEK MUSABEKOV!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we found with the opening issue of this series, Dynamite made the wait worthwhile between series with a pitch-perfect team taking it on. Sarah Hoyt before absolutely captures the kind of tone that this series needs to work right and capture the feel that I think most fans are looking for with it. It connects with past works while still feeling connected to the film in its own way. Hoyt is again joined by Madibek Musabekov and it’s again a drop-dead gorgeous book. With Ivan Nunes coloring, the designs look great for the characters with a kind of presence and sensuality that really works and there’s a good look to the worldbuilding that’s going on here throughout.
The investigation into Camelot is one that went well overall even if Barbarella wasn’t able to do much as everyone being controlled by nanites means they’re immune to her charms. It didn’t take long to figure out where the signal controlling them was coming from but it was just routing it there from off-world, so it’s not the end of the mission but rather the beginning. It provided enough for them to be able to go and deal with this running it, putting them down to be dealt with later while freeing the population from its control. The problem is that all of these very wealthy and in-control type of people are now waking to discover they’ve been controlled for a long time and they’re reacting badly and violently.
The group does get a little help from the man left to run the place while his partner went off to start up another and that at least gives us a clue as to the world where the signal is originating from. The only problem is that the team has to get off-world, which with all the violence isn’t going to be easy. There’s a really neat tender moment before it digs into that as we see how Barbarella rewards those that help, but it also comes in contrast with the sacrifices that are made as they do their best to get away and have to deal with the toll that comes from it. I really like that we get to see such emotion out of Barbarella in general and the artwork here just makes it feel like it’s on a whole other level even though we’ve got a fairly straightforward story with a mystery.
In Summary:
Barbarella continues to be one of the properties that I am overall still surprised that it works as well as it does and that it delivers beautifully with each issue. I’m hard-pressed to think of a single bad issue in Dynamite’s run in general and this new series from this new creative team is simply taking it to new heights. It’s got a great script and pacing and the artwork is fantastic. It may not be the kind of property that everyone will get into but it’s a top-tier book with its production and content and should be one of the jewels in Dynamite’s crown.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 18th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
