Danger Girl #4 - Image Comics

DANGER GIRL #4, December 1998

Shifting an impressive 95,035 copies in July 1998, this ninth best-selling comic of the month must surely have exhausted its audience with its ferocious pace, seeing as Andy Hartnell’s script somehow manages to cram almost its entire pulse-pounding plot within the claustrophobic confines of Eddy Owen’s quaint-looking English home. Indeed, whether it be the Teutonic nightmare Major Maxim leading a destructive “search under his own discretion” for an ancient artefact, Abbey Chase exchanging pistol fire with a number of automatic weapon-toting Hammer operatives, or Sydney Savage bullwhipping her opponents into submission, all of this comic’s sense-shattering shenanigans are essentially confined to the fantasy card game inventor’s living room; “Can we try to treat Eddy’s pad with a little respect?”

Fortunately however, that doesn’t mean for a second that J. Scott Campbell’s story contains any unnecessary padding, as every single one of this twenty-two page periodical’s numerous panels help to either progress the narrative or inform those bibliophiles new to the mini-series as to what has taken place beforehand. Admittedly, Chase’s ruminations concerning her co-players and the relic hunter’s previous exploits might seem a little duplicitous considering that they follow straight on from this book’s black and white summary of past events, but intermingled within her flashbacks are some nicely penned insights as to just how insecure Abbey feels about fitting in with the rest of the “Danger Girl” team.

Moreover, just as soon as “Fox Force Five” cross the threshold of Owen’s partially-demolished abode in the dead of night, this comic’s creative collaboration dial up the action ten-fold with a seemingly relentless carousel of trigger-happy “dummkopfs” and lethal-looking secret agents. Foremost of these forces for evil has to be the “robotic monstrosity” Major Maxim, whose utterly relentless nature marks him out as the main villain of the piece. Superbly pencilled by Campbell, the goose-stepping automaton dominates every scene he’s in, soaking up every seemingly harmless bullet his opponents can riddle his black leather-clad torso with.

Similarly as successful is just how quickly a potentially promising situation goes horribly awry for the titular characters, intriguingly marking this comic out as one which isn’t simply concerned with depicting the good guys kicking butt all the time. One moment Chase appears certain to once again win the day by escaping the surrounding carnage with “Eddy’s little secret” clasped in her hands, and then in the next, Sydney Savage and Johnny Barracuda are clearly knocked out for the count, and Deuce’s line-up appears to suffer its first fatal casualty…

Story: Andy Hartnell & J. Scott Campbell, Script: Andy Hartnell, and Drawings: J. Scott Campbell