Lady Freedom #3 - Second Sight Publishing

LADY FREEDOM No. 3, September 2021

Starting with a marvellously dramatic opening from “the past” which features the all-powerful Echelon finally coming face-to-face with the enigmatic Tomorrow Man on the defeated planet of Na’mus, Issue Three of “Lady Freedom” certainly appears to be about to embark upon a truly titanic tale of near omnipotent super-beings brutally battering one another into next week. However, despite such a pulse-pounding bout of earth-shaking pugilism undeniably taking place between the two cosmic heavyweights, a lot of what occurs within the rest of this twenty-seven page periodical is arguably far less accessible; “Fool, that feeble effort will not stop what has been set in motion.”

To begin with Lady Freedom and Miss Enigma are suddenly found to be “engaged in a secret mission” together on a far distant world, where its murky swamplands are infested with some sort of robotic Komodo dragons. Just how the crime-fighting couple happen to have reached such a location is disconcertingly never explained by Arthur Bellfield, nor how the pair knew this was where they’d find both Tomorrow Girl and the mysterious Matrix of All. Instead, one of the titular character’s “most trusted allies” simply appears out of nowhere, hands over a baby to the Native American and then is shockingly murdered by Enigma with a bullet straight through the head.

Similarly as disconcerting though, is this comic’s secondary plot-thread which sees Camille Arboghast become the target of a surprise attack by two of Echelon’s extra-terrestrial minions. Gor and Vara definitely make an impressive impact upon the reader with their remarkable ability to defeat Scarlett in just five seconds, but apart from a single line suggesting that they come from a future where “you’re going to be one of the greats”, there doesn’t seem to be much rationale as to why the deadly duo have been dispatched to tackle Lady Freedom’s friends.

Luckily, Larry Spike Jarrell’s pencilling is debatably worth this publication’s cover price alone, with Echelon’s aforementioned battle against Tomorrow Man providing the artist with the opportunity to sketch some seriously sense-shattering panels. Whether it be some jaw-breaking blows to the chin, or some horrendously savage batterings with a metallic hammer, the illustrator manages to imbue all this comic’s fight sequences with some eye-watering brutality.

The regular cover of "LADY FREEDOM" #3 by Larry Spike Jarrell