Fun detective noir with a Dick Tracy twist.  Blond Justice fights crime in a city rife with corruption, ruled by gangsters, and protected by a police force whose job is to mop up after crimes not solve them.  The overall story introduces the world and the character by exploring the lives of the three most likely candidates to be Blond Justice.  Each story emphasizes a different angle on the detective vigilante.  The first story emphasizes vigilante justice, the second detective work, and the third introduces the “super-villain”.  I say “super-villain” in quotes, because this segment had me laughing out loud.  How super can a villain be if they failed at their primary vocation? 

The overall story leans towards fun and exciting but avoids whimsy and silly.  Underneath that is a nuance of pain and sadness.  The comic does not hit the reader over the head with big moments of emotional pain.  Instead, the death and destruction caused by the city is a nuance to the action.  Two, or at most three, panels in any of the three stories makes this undertone come through.

The art is good but not great.  The artist clearly has some difficulties in body proportions and anatomy.  In most cases this is not really visible, but the few panels where full bodies shots are shown it is a bit jarring.  What pulled the art up from a 3 to a 4 is the coloring.  The colors are crisp and distinct.  As is necessary for this kind of story, the shadowing is excellent, and the shadows are almost a character in itself.

If you like your vigilantes to have brains and mystery, you like books that are nuanced, or enjoy detective stories with a touch of flavor, READ this book.

Note: The higher cover price is because there are no ads at all.  Its a book devoted to the story without jarring interruptions of video games and action figures.