Review: Sheena Queen of the Jungle #1

Those who like their comics served with a slice of cheesecake will be pleased this week as one of the pantheons of the curvy, glamour style of art makes her welcome return this week in the shapely form of Dynamite Entertainment’s Sheena Queen of the Jungle.

Awoken in the big city, Sheena is along way from her vine covered, animal sheltering home. There is a ticket from this force sojourn in the completion of a job; it seems that something has gone awry in a bio-dome that is a synthesis of nature and machine, Solve the problem and Sheena can go home. As an added since her beloved friends are in the dome, Sheena has slip into something more comfortable to save the day.

Writer Stephen Mooney does a credible job in supplanting Sheena into a kind of fish out her own water story. Sure, there is a jungle involved, but it is not the familiar vines of Sheena’s stomping ground. The first issue is a tad dialogue and evil monologuing heavy in places, though the interactions between Sheena and her male bodyguard / partner/ overseer has a nice acidic feel to it. The smooth corporate speak is also well observed, promoting their world view with obvious bias. I assume that future issues may have less exposition, indeed I would rather be seeing the scenery than chewing it!

This brings me nicely to the art of Jethro Morales who is no stranger to the world of cheesecake art having worked on Bettie Page. Here, the art started of great, with clever use of shadows, moves into a more angular style in places before returning with a bank to curves and the traditional animal skin dress. Through it all, Sheena looks consistent for the most part. I am not keen on the art in the whole office scene, was there a compromise made to fit in all the dialogue which sets the scene? Also, I am not keen on how Sheena’s blouse seems to change it’s neckline; pick a style and stick to it. Finally, as much as I like sexy art, please try and keep the size of certain body parts consistent. Boobs after all are not normally inflatable! Colors are provided by Dinei Ribeiro who keeps things nice and fresh for the jungle scenes and city scape alike. Taylor Esposito is on hand to letter the book in his usual style and grace; conversations are easy to follow as the dialogue flows through the book. Finally, there are a raft of covers; personally, I like the main cover from Lucio Parrillo (at the top of the review) and the Joseph Michael Linsner cover (in the banner and to the right), as always it is buyers choice.

Sheena is a character that I often thing about as a one trick pony, who may seem less capable of smart as her Dynamite stable mates. Part of this is how she was used a few years back in the Swords of Sorrow crossover event and part of it is that I don’t like jungle books. This time around I have been pleasantly surprised and I am genuinely intrigued as to where the story will go.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 4 Stars

Written by; Stephen Mooney
Art by; Jethro Morales
Colors by Dinei Ribeiro
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Covers by; Lucio Parrillo, Rose Besch,
Arthur Suydam and Joseph Michael Linsner
Published by; Dynamite Entertainment

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network