Lady Freedom #1

Lady Freedom #1

Second Sight Publishing 2021

Created & Pencilled by Larry Spike Jarrell

Written by Arthur Bellfield

Inked by Bill Marimon

Coloured by Matheus Huve

Lettered by Hector Negrete

Lady Freedom

Native American Natalie Cloudrider is a Sargent in the Army. Here she is inspired and volunteers to join the Freedom Fighter Program because she wants to do more to protect her country. She is joined by Sgt. Camille Abhorghast and Scarlett, her self appointed sidekick. Together they are tasked with stopping the Villainous Black Valkyrie. In the debut issue of Lady Freedom.

This is the third book out this week from Second Sight Publishing and honestly I am so happy and so proud u Bradley for getting this off the ground with such high quality books and storytelling. So please check these out, they are in Previews and available through Diamond so your store should have no problem getting them in. This one is the most unique of the lot yet and I have to say seeing a Native American woman being the lead character is so freaking good. It is nice to see a strong female led book let alone one of colour at that and it has the inspiration behind it that shines like a beacon of hope and the book makes you feel like you’re discovering comics for the first time all over again.

I like 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 extremely well. I also appreciate that we are just dropped into the series which is already in progress instead of starting at the beginning. This way we know a flashback will come explaining her origin somewhere down the road and in the meantime we as the reader are engaged in her, her life and figuring out who she is. It is very impressive to say the least. The character development is superb and through the dialogue as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances continue to flesh them out. I like how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as it makes it reading this a breeze. The way that this is structured and how it allows for the layers within the story to come alive and weave themselves through the main arc is very well achieved.

I like the interiors here as the linework is solid and thick, it could use some more varying weights to them and some different techniques other than straight linework. It has a very starter artist feel to it that is actually endearing. The backgrounds we see are phenomenal and they really enhance the moments as well as bring us some nice depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. These overly muscular women need some work they feel very stiff like a colourform figure placed on the page and we really need to feel some motion or movement emanate from them. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a nice eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is splendid. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered nicely. Also be careful because Scarlett looks an awful lot like Lady Deadpool so you might want to consider changing up that outfit.

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This issue starts off already in progress and ends with a bang, literally! It is nice to see the passion and love that goes into this book as well as the thoughtfulness of utilising a female lead of colour and how she is represented. This is a fun book and it has a great dynamic between the character and a bit of sarcasm sassiness that goes a long way to adding humour.