Review: Fairlady #4

First off, I stand with a lady who masquerades as a man to fight in an army. In fact, one of my first ever, most beloved fantasy books I read as a girl had that same premise. I doubly stand a lady whose fourth issue opens up with a Fraction-esque Hawkeye “okay, this looks bad,” type opener. I’m not entirely sure if this was intentional on Brian Schirmer’s part, but if it was, I sincerely and utterly appreciate that little nod so much.

Jumping right in, Image Comics’ Fairlady is almost exactly what I thought it would be; a mix of levity, a little bit of mysticism, some fantasy, and a touch of sleuthing. Jenner basically is like a fantasy version of a P.I., who has been hired to locate a specific text for an unknown employer. As a character, I very much enjoy Jenner. There’s something to the sometimes in your face levity that surrounds her that’s balanced by her super dry wit and sarcasm that I appreciate.

The art in the title, by Claudia Balboni, is lovely and detailed without over complicating itself and detracting from the action going on in the panels. You don’t lose faces or details when characters are in motion. If I’m honest, a lot of times for me when reading other things and this happens, it slightly takes me out of the action itself. I tend to focus on the art and less on the words, then,Â if it’s not a shift that’s pertinent to emphasizing something that is happening in the story or a theme.

Marissa Louise’s colors are lovely. Muted brights that come off touched by time; a washed out photograph that still retains some of the original vibrancy but clearly is somehow outside of the current time that we’re living in. This completely offsets some of the more updated choices lookwise for people like Jenner, who rocks a pretty sweet undercut in a way that I really fell in love with. I like a good balance of new and old. Young and antiquated. I think that it allows us to see bits of the title in every day life.

For me, I think that the central theme of Fairlady’s 4th issue was the power that literature has; to enlighten, to inspire, to cause us to want to transcend who we were previously to become better but also how much it can possibly also drive us mad. That, taken to extremes, text can inspire people to act madly. Selfishly. It can make us fervent zealots who might feel called to do things that others might find atrocious or offensive. The 4 out of 5 star title itself ends on something of a cliffhanger which I hope resolves itself in the subsequent issue. Did you also read Fairlady? What was your take on it, if so?

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(W) Brian Schirmer (A) Claudia Balboni, Marissa Louise (CA) Justin Greenwood, Brad Simpson