Danger Girl #3 - Image Comics

DANGER GIRL #3, August 1998

Considering that this twenty-two page periodical simply doesn’t stop producing pulse-pounding moments of exhilarating action right up until its jaw-droppingly sinister, cliff-hanger of an ending, it is easy to see just why Issue Three of “Danger Girl” saw its sales increase by a whopping forty thousand copies in June 1998. Sure, a small portion of the comic’s 120,588 readers might have found this sense-shattering pace a little too relentless as Abbey Chase and Johnny Barracuda desperately attempt to flee the Peach’s fascist forces with an antique shield, but for the vast majority of their fans J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell’s plot is a tour-de-force as to how to pen adventure comics perfectly.

For starters it soon becomes crystal clear just how fast-thinking this book’s leading ‘sexy female secret agent’ can be, when she utilises both her formidable feminine wiles and impressive improvisation skills to steal an ancient artefact from right under the nose of “the Manimal” whilst ‘enjoying’ an intimate bath with the arms dealer. Surrounded by gun-toting, gas-mask wearing goons, Chase defies all the odds with a well-aimed shot at a chandelier, and subsequently shows she also makes a mean snow sledge driver to boot by outpacing a number of trigger-happy, Hammer Empire operatives; “I race back with the shield, decipher the hieroglyphics, I’m a hero.”

In complete contrast, the collaborative team’s “charismatic” spy, Barracuda, rather delightfully seems to get by through sheer blind luck at times, with the secret agent’s elongated ego compelling him to be far more concerned with his boyish good looks and delivering witty one-liners, than the inherent danger he is clearly surrounded by. Such evident differences in character really helps make this pair a truly humorous partnership to watch, and creates some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments amidst all the storyline’s frantic fighting.

Equally as enjoyable, as well as yet another reason as to why this publication was the fourth best-selling title of the month, are Campbell’s luscious storyboards. Whether it be Abbey doing her best impression of Captain America riding down a snow-laden piste on a shield, or Johnny impressively blazing away at his numerous heavily-armed pursuers with a blowback-operated submachine gun, the Michigan-born artist imbues each and every panel of the publication with plenty of pencilled passion.

Plot: Andy Hartnell & J. Scott Campbell, and Pencils: J. Scott Campbell