Joe Benitez Productions 2018
Written by M.M. Chen & Joe Benitez
Pencilled by Joe Benitez & Martin Montiel
Inked by Studio J-13
Coloured by Beth Sotelo
Lettered by Michael Heisler
Lady Mechanika finally has a solid clue to her forgotten past, but the investigation becomes overshadowed by her concern for Mr. Lewis when his behaviour suddenly turns erratic and potentially dangerous upon meeting a beautiful and enigmatic young widow.
So this story is a continuation from one of the tales in the FCBD edition that came out in May. While it was previewed sure this is a perfectly good introductory issue to the story. One of the things about the Lady Mechanika that I find so appealing is that she is a strong female lead character. She isn’t afraid to use her sex to get the job done and when that isn’t necessary she dresses for the situation at hand. In this world she inhabits I find her extremely progressive even if she has no idea about her own past and who she was before being mechanised.
I love the opening it’s mysterious and spooky as something seemingly supernatural appears and then poof we’re into the main story. Also while I am happy to admit it I do enjoy seeing the Inspector trying to flirt with Lady Mechanika. We have seen him over time either coming to her defence or arresting her depending on the situation, sometimes both at the same time, so knowing in the back of my mind that he is smitten with her and she knows it but doesn’t let it go anywhere yeah it’s one of those things. Personally if they ever were to get together it would be like one of those television programs where that signalled the shows downfall.
This of course leads us to see a series of unfortunate events. Mr. Lewis is falling further and further down the rabbit hole and his drinking has gotten out of hand. This is great because it means that Marcia and Joe keep each of these limited series in the right timeline so it is like a soap opera in that we see things constantly moving forward. Archibald cannot handle what happened in the past and yet we don’t need to know the exact details to understand what we see in these pages. This is one of the reason I love this franchise because after a while you begin to see these characters as much as family as they see each other that way.
Joe is an amazing artist there is absolutely no denying that. The work he does here with his posse is sensational stuff and the imagination and creativity that surrounds us on each page takes us to places we never would have thought could exist. I mean the page layouts themselves so uniquely used to show off some style and panache then the way we see angles and perspective in the panels shows off such a strong eye for storytelling. The museum is a treasure trove of items that keep the eye moving and the mind working. The attention to detail here is beyond exceptional and that it extends to the backgrounds and layouts the way it does just wow.
The characters we see, meet and revisit have that characterisation to them that make them who they are and seen so vividly. Her arch-nemesis Allie, her father Dr. Littleton along with Fred, Winifred who is Archibald’s niece, and the mysterious Miss Grimm all just keep things moving forward in ways that keep us on the edge of our seats.
Lady Mechanika is one of those rare franchises that always move forward, always have this amazing sensibility to the writing that matches the interior artwork and never ever fails to impress.