Bettie Page in The Curse of the Banshee #5

Bettie Page in The Curse of the Banshee #5

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Stephen Mooney

Illustrated by Jethro Morales

Coloured by Dinei Ribero

Lettered by Taylor Esposito with Elizabeth Sharland

This is it! The Irish adventure of Bettie Page is almost over? Will she escape the forever curse of the Banshee and return, unscathed, the life of a Hollywood starlet?

Something that I greatly appreciate is that Stephen really ties this series into everything that has come before and this includes all those supernatural stories. Bettie has been touched by ancient magic and while, hopefully, we’ll probably never know why her, it doesn't matter because we’ve seen it happen time and time again. This allows for some interesting ways for this to be told. We see this in the opening here which is so incredibly well rendered and goes a long way in explaining Bettie’s past way better than I’m currently capable of doing. This also shows us the whole deal with the Banshee and why she’s drawn to Bettie and it all ties together beautifully. The revelations that Stephen brings us here are fantastic and it really is the perfect spot for this to happen as it doesn’t ruin the suspense of the story and only serves to give the reader that moment of surprise that we crave.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really does a phenomenal job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more complete it all feels.

I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The avenues that the layers explore really do such an amazing job in bringing this story to its natural and logical, yes logical, conclusion while we see how much great depth, dimension and complexity this adds to the story. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are fantastic. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the attention to detail is absolutely stunning. How we see the backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is told exceedingly well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise their effects. The Banshee itself is a prime example of what colour is capable of accomplishing.

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This series has been a real highlight for me from Dynamite. If you don’t know the story of Bettie Page then you should really do some research because she’s a fascinating woman to be sure. That there is so much mystery and mystique surrounding her and her time away from the spotlight and this just fuels the fans of the fire of what her life was really like. Personally I think this kind of alternate history is the kind that blends fact, fiction, rumours and such and creates a much larger than life caricature of Bettie that is thrilling. The writing is superb, the characterization is on point and the interiors here are utterly delightful and this is what we can expect from this team on their new upcoming series then we’re in for a hell of a good time.