The body count rises as the opening arc closes.
Creative Staff:
Story: Stephen Mooney
Art: Jethro Morales
Colors: Dinei Ribeiro
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Is this the issue where it all comes crashing down? Does the fearsome predator within the dome claim the very life of our hero(ine)! One way or the other, the curtain will be peeled back and the real villain lurking behind it all with stand revealed and that may well spell the very doom of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle! Jurassic Park meets Predator meets Squid Game? Either way, Sheena is Queen of all.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The series wraps up its opening arc here and it looks like the next arc is going to bring in a new writer, which is something of a surprise as Dynamite tends to restart a series or do a series of miniseries rather than change an ongoing writer. Writer Stephen Mooney and artist Jethro Morales set things up well and bring this storyline to a close fairly well as they’re both exceptionally strong talents that are more than capable of working this. Sheena is such an odd character in that there’s a kind of timelessness about her but at the same time a kind of dated aspect that keeps her from being used too widely. It’s a delicate line to walk but one worth trying because the payoff tends to be really good.
With this being the finishing out point for this story, it has a lot to accomplish in a slightly longer issue, or one that feels that way at least. Sheena and Beatrice are doing their best to get inside the control center of the biodome and that’s proving problematic only in that Sheena is trying to not kill everyone. She’ll kill people as necessary but Beatrice is ready to kill everyone and it’s just drawing more and more attention on them. The reality is that she’s intent on tearing down this place and through a very lengthy and convoluted bit with those in true power here, we understand just how bad of a scam this whole biodome is and how those at the top are just trying to mitigate their financial loss over the actual larger impact on life and environment. It’s pure corporate villainy and while not a bad thing, it’s almost cartoonish here in where the dialogue feels like it’s close to going.
Where the book really goes here is when Sheena finally gets in touch with Ransome and the two trade stories of sorts and realize what’s going on. Ransome is not a good guy in general but even here he’s being duped and doing things badly without realizing it and is truly ashamed. But when Sheena realizes it’s because his six-year-old daughter was in the tour group and is missing, that sets her to finding her and doing the right thing. Beatrice has to be talked into it to some degree, and from killing everyone else, but she does leave a trail of bodies and has to deal with other issues along the way. It’s not bad but it’s just such an overstuffed issue in that it really does feel like it needed that sixth one to space it out better. It’s trying to do too much in a small amount of space.
In Summary:
The end of this story does leave a number of things open-ended so it can be picked up again from there in the future. With Stephen Mooney departing and a new writer coming on, I imagine it’ll go in its own way and hopefully they can find a good path for the character. This was a decent storyline with quite enjoyable artwork that made for a lot of fun, but at this point I think I may be done with Sheena for a while. It’s a hard character to do well and to find a way to do her in the modern world that I’m not sure really clicks completely. There are ways to do it but I think it ends up just limiting it to less interesting stories than can be told set in days of the original character. Dynamite definitely has done their work to bring the character to life with a solid team and hopefully they can find more success with it.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 13th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
