Dynamite Entertainment 2019
Written by Leah Williams
Illustrated by German Garcia
Coloured by Addison Duke
Lettered by Crank!
The Femmes from the Future find themselves on a world entirely covered by oceans. That’s no big deal, what with Earth 70% covered, but for the desert-born Dejah of Mars, some water wings are needed, stat! Really, though, the endless depths are the easy part… it’s the creatures lurking in the unknown that are the real threat, especially the intelligent ones!
Last issue, the first one by the way, was all about setting up how these two women meet. We also ended up on this interesting note as well which was one of the better cliffhanger endings I have seen in quite some time. What Leah did and how she did it was quite brilliant and when we read this issue that brilliance shines even brighter and more confidently. The level of writing that I see here is utterly fantastic and the ebb & flow created through the course of these pages envelops you and makes you see things you might never have known before, especially regarding these two women.
Picking up where we left off the ladies are in some kind of bubble under a sea. Considering that Barbarella was following her friend and mentor Doctor Gitu’s final message to her and somehow this meant Dejah having to be there as well, well that’s the mystery isn’t it? Why would Dejah who hails from a world where water was the scarcest of commodities be needed underwater? As we see Barbarella using this wonderful strong, smart and powerful mind of hers and her sassy as hell attitude you begin to really see how their two personalities are so vastly different and yet so the same.
Leah is doing some of the most impressive work I have seen from her here. Not only is this book structured incredibly well, the ebb & flow is sensational and the way that their journey leads them to where they need to be well it is so well thought out and executed. The characterisation here for me is off the charts and I can totally see how one would want to kill the other during this but knowing it’s not wise all things considered well it’s amazing. Plus I never really knew how smart Barbarella was, I mean to see her basically use her mind here and not fighting anything or blowing it up well damn it is not what I was expecting at all!
Now I am still not a fan of the style of the interior artwork here. There just isn’t any real attention to detail and lets not even get started on Dejah’s nipple covers. With the imagination and creativity in these creatures who live under the sea this could have been awe inspiring stuff but it falls short for me, I am really missing the varying weights in the linework to create something special. While the utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels is nicely done I am amazed we don’t see backgrounds. In this environment they should be everywhere! While it isn’t bad per se if this were an all-ages title I just don’t see it belonging here.
I love the premise, the way the story is being told and how these two women from different worlds and era’s can come together like this. With absolutely killer dialogue and some stellar pacing this is a good example where the story is so strong you just go with it, whether you enjoy the interiors or not.