Lady Freedom #1 - Second Sight Publishing

LADY FREEDOM No. 1, March 2021

Wasting absolutely no time in throwing its readers straight into an action-packed furore inside a secret American military base, Arthur Bellfield’s script for Issue One of “Lady Freedom” undoubtedly provides Sergeant Natalie Cloudrider with a truly sense-shattering “Second Sight Publishing” debut. Indeed, even when this comic’s plot momentarily pauses to provide its audience with a bit of backstory to the Machiavellian motivations of its central antagonist, “the villainous Black Valkyrie”, the dialogue is so ‘straight to the point’ that mere moments later the action has already whisked their attention back to the criminal’s evil plans for those hapless tourists unlucky enough to have sought inspiration from Liberty Island; “Find out which one of them is wearing that ridiculous perfume and kill them first.”

Enjoyably however, this comic doesn’t simply deliver an endless series of frantic fisticuffs between the titular character and her very evident arch-nemesis. But also raises several intriguing questions as to just what the mysterious Freedom Fighter Program is all about, and why, after hundreds of men and women volunteered, just the native American and Camille Abhorghast survived to see active duty..?

These disconcerting conundrums are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ too, as in between bouts of panicky punch-ups, bone-breaking batterings and telekinetic trickery, it is additionally revealed that the Government doesn’t yet trust the other super-powered “freelancers” who populate this publication’s world, or seemingly believe that “the only other successful experiment in our little hero maker programme” is genuinely ready for combat. In addition, this book intriguingly never actually explains just why Black Valkyrie is so bitterly opposed to the values of the United States of America, and merely hints at the darkly deep history between the silver-haired strongwoman and Lady Freedom, rather than somewhat lackadaisically ‘spelling it out’.

Ultimately though, the considerable success of this twenty-three page periodical rests upon the shoulders of creator Larry Spike Jarrell’s layouts, and his prodigious ability to imbue some serious smackdowns with plenty of “Thud” and “Ker-plank”. In fact, one of this comic’s highlights is arguably the artist’s ability to depict its quite sizeable cast performing plenty of athletic acrobatics, laying down some eye-winching beatings and surviving the odd eardrum-bursting explosion.

Creator/Pencils: Larry Spike Jarrell, Writer: Arthur Bellfield, and Inks: Bill Marimon