Dark Agnes #1 - Marvel Comics

DARK AGNES No. 1, April 2020

For those of this comic’s 23,631 strong audience somewhat disconcerted by Becky Cloonan’s pre-publication admission that she wasn’t “ashamed to say I’d never heard of Dark Agnes before Mark Basso, my editor at Marvel sent me an email asking if I’d like to write this miniseries”, this title’s opening instalment probably provided them with some reassurance that the Pisa-born writer was still going to do Robert E. Howard’s “Sword Woman” justice. Indeed, starting with a public execution which is packed with both humour and tension, the American author’s narrative for Issue One of “Dark Agnes” definitely contains its fair share of giggles and swashbuckling swordplay, most notably when the heroine successfully undertakes a bold mission to rescue Etienne Villiers from the executioner’s axe.

Admittedly, the more uncharitable critic could suggest that the pacing for this twenty-page periodical momentarily dips once the pair have ridden out of Chinon to freedom and sought sustenance in the Pewter Pot public house. But to be fair it isn’t long before Agnes has thrown her dagger into some miscreant’s doublet when the braggart foolishly suggests he should claim the five hundred francs the Duke D’Alencon has placed upon the woman’s head, and then later falls into a distinctly disturbing, drunken nightmare, packed full of anthropomorphic animals; “Ungrateful Wench! Your new husband will tame you, I warrant. He will not humour you as I have, daughter.”

Enjoyably, even this bizarre sequence populated by slavering wolfmen, talking pigs, drowning sheep and anxious-looking poultry doesn’t bring Cloonan’s startling shenanigans to an end, with the book still containing enough space for the “Mistress Of Death” to save a holy sister from the foul intentions of a drunken lout. Utterly merciless in dispatching her fallen foe with a thrust of her sword, despite the man being completely unarmed, this short-lived scene is extremely impactive, and sets up the titular character as a no-nonsense killer when her blood is up.

Adding some additional tongue-in-cheek levity to the pulse-pounding proceedings is Luca Pizzari’s pencilling, who proficiently portrays the book’s proceedings with plenty of gusto and pace. In fact, this publication's layouts are so jolly-looking that it’s easy to see why Becky gave “big props” to both the Italian artist and colorist Jay David Ramos in her March 2020 interview with the “Comics Bulletin” website.

Writer: Becky Cloonan, Artist: Luca Pizzari, and Colorist: Jay David Ramois