Dark Horse Comics 2020
Created by Chelsea Cain & Lia Miternique
Written by Chelsea Cain
Illustrated by Elise McCall
Coloured by Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by Joe Carmagna
Super spy Nora Freud (no relation) has a plum assignment. She's stationed on a tropical island. Her mission? Keep an eye on things. Her problem? The island is on the lip of the Bermuda Triangle, where anything can happen. Her other problem? This particular island is a den of intrigue, populated by spies, tourists, and evil villains set on global domination.
From the moment I saw this solicited, I mean the Sunday before release, I was intrigued. No I don’t utilise Previews and honestly I’m going to have to start soon but that’s another story entirely. So I am thrilled that I was able to grab a copy and I have to say it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. The idea behind the story, how it is realised upon the page and just the execution of everything from top to bottom is outstanding. So yeah I am all in for this one folks.
Right off the bat we open up with an eye-catching beginning. This is where words and visuals together create something greater than either alone could do. Then to see photographs inserted into the book creating the multimedia effect was brilliantly done. So the hook in the opening is what grabs you then doesn’t leave you a choice but to continue onward. By the way you will want to go onward willingly. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. The character development is intriguing because it’s an Island of spies so who knows what the truth is and what it isn’t so it’s going to take all the detective skills the reader can muster to figure things out. The pacing is great and as it takes the reader through the pages revealing the story, the characters as well as getting us into the story itself is extremely well done.
How we see the way this is structured and how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is beautifully done. The way we see the layers within the story coming to life is fabulous and it makes us want to see more of these characters that surround Nora. How this is fully fleshed out is rather quite impressive in ways I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The interiors here are pretty darn spectacular. The linework we see is laid down extremely well and how the varying weights are utilised to create the detail work is beautifully rendered. Now the dude in his yellow trunks, thank god they are speedo’s, and how we see Harry literally being hairy is beautifully done and it wouldn’t be horrible if we had the tables turned and a full frontal male was seen for a change. The way that backgrounds are utilised to enhance the moments and bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book is seen. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is divine. The myriad of hues and tones that we see within the colours and the various techniques we see utilised throughout is mindbogglingly brilliantly rendered. Seriously the colour work is beyond amazing.
This takes the spy thriller and turns it on its ears. This is a game changer for so many different reasons, the least among them is that it takes the female spy seriously and makes her the badass that she’s supposed to be. It’s fantastic to see such a great book as this being created and put out so that word of mouth will do more for this than any advertising could. Girl power at its finest people and you need this in your life.