Awesome! If you like crime noir you’ll like this.

The character is well fleshed out with nothing yawn inducing. It moves along. Not break-neck pace but nice and steady. Personally I like my characters to have an opinion regardless of if I agree. The danger is that the character can become a mouthpiece for the author. Madison rides the razor’s edge with grace, imo. The reason for Helena’s feminist leaning convictions are clearly defined and believable. Her father was abusive. From there it’s not that big of a stretch for Helena to have anti-male sentiment. Additionally, this story highlights a younger and more cocky Helena. To me, Ivory does not write Helena as a feminist but more as a woman who, as a result of having an abusive father has decided to make it a point to be a strong woman. Mix that with some father/male issues and you’ve got an interesting if perhaps unpopular world view. I see this as a good thing. The book also deals with other important social issues such as domestic abuse domestic abuse and it does so elegantly.

I’m on-board for sure. My wife read it and she felt strongly enough about it to want to discuss it with me. She liked the layers of metaphors and says it reminded her of certain trends in Canadian literature where the female leads are dark and brooding. I agree, it is a layered book.

The pencils are great also. I find some of the poses a little awkward but I think that’s Richards finding his groove with the character and it’s really a nitpick and nothing major. He makes great use of dramatic angles that prove he wasn’t lying when he said he researched film noir for this project. Very tight. Another thing that strikes me is that in an interview, when asked about this Huntress he stated that “She has no sex appeal”. I fail to understand what he means by this because Helena is very attractive in the book. Luscious flowing raven hair. Tall, toned body. Olive skin. Facial features that are very feminine yet strong. I think Bertinelli is stunning in this book! Very attractive! I mean check out the full page drawing on page 19! Nothing un-sexy about it. I’m exagerating a bit, it’s true that it’s not overtly sexual. What I’m saying is that I like the balance of believability and sexiness. Real clothes + real anatomy = real sexy in my book. But anyway, I’m veering.

I’ll add a final word on the coloring. It is incredibly beautiful! It emphasizes the weight on Helena’s mind so well! The flashbacks tinted in a brown-grey are so effective without calling attention to itself. Gorgeous! I love the tint of purple used on Bertinelli’s vest. So smooth and velvety. I usually like high contrast colors but the palette is so well balanced and, I know I’m saying this a lot but, subtle! I’m definitely a convert to this coloring technique.

My token nitpick for this book is the gradients on the caption boxes. White text knocked out of a darker background already has reduced readabilty and legibility but then add a gradient that fades to near white under white text. It’s a mess! It’s a pet peeve. Anyway…

Can’t wait for #2! If the whole series is this good, I’ll gladly dish out my coins for an on-going with this creative team. Very happy about this indeed!