REVIEW: Lady Hel No.2

Honestly, the best imprint to come out of Dynamite Comics is anything that has the “Chaos!” tag on it. Take for example Jeff Burnham’s latest series : “Lady Hel”, focused on the antagonist of Ray Fawkes’ “Vampirella vs. Purgatori”, and morphing her into the hero of her own tale as she does battle against one of her sisters for her home, a necropolis known as Helheim.

Zhengis Tasbolatov provides provocative pencil work as he draws up Hel and sister, embroiled in battle, with Hel (currently depowered) taking the brunt of punishment as she is being forcefully evicted by her sister who is intent on successfully accomplishing a power play that can change the state of the universes that these two Death Goddesses inhabit.

Only in a Chaos book can a man being forcefully made to do the “Exorcist twist” be played up for humor, as a tongue-in-cheek seagull (an obvious homage to Gaiman’s Matthew) is beaten to death to the point of visceral gore that as the gull’s guts bust, the only logical response is gut busting laughter in the world of Chaos! Though Hel has a large family, Aiala is able to mark the difference between both Lady Demon and Purgatori, despite the fact that they are both red. The tones of each of their skins is acutely detailed to differentiate the two to display the variation of each character as visually noticeable as Hel is blue. Burnham carries on the tradition of Christos Gage (“Nyx”) and Fawkes and takes the time to flesh out an antagonist that seemed more of a plot device than an actual character in previous iterations.

Whether she’s screaming out in frustration in boisterous letters designed by Dave Sharpe, or visibly tired while attempting to turn invisible to stomping out a seagull with a vigor that I’ve only had in the past with Payless “Timbs” on, Hel has arrived as a character audiences can actually care about. The team behind “Lady Hel” has allowed her to be more than just the villain that everybody knows is going to get her comeuppance at the end, and definitely more than just the typical Dynamite! sexy fantasy that effectively sells covers for convention cosplayer’s to only dream of replicating.

Score : 4.5/5

(W) Erik Burnham (A) Zhengis Tasbolatov (CA) Daniel Maine