Sheena Queen of the Jungle #01

Sheena Queen of the Jungle #01

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Stephen Mooney

Illustrated by Jethro Morales

Coloured by Dinei Ribeiro

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

Sheena is recruited – that’s being kind, she’s kind of forced to go! - to enter the “biodome” -- an amazing synthesis and nature and machine, where something has gone terribly wrong. Outside the dome, she’s faced with human trickery and deceit, inside the dome, she faces the deadly jungle and a fast, murdering mystery.

I have been looking forward to this since it was announced and I have to say that it was so worth the anticipation. I very much like the way that this issue introduces us to Sheena and what is happening within her life at the moment. The opening is stupendous and in a myriad of ways shows what kind of woman that she is, which is just this strong, confident and no nonsense kind of gal. That she is comfortable in her own skin and as sure of herself as she is to be walking around the way we see her just exudes the powerful person that she is and it is rather glorious to see. Now for those who may not be as familiar with Sheena this is a great jumping on point because what you need to know about her and who she is is all represented here and it makes enjoying this issue that much more accessible to everyone.

Love, love, love 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 exquisitely. The character development, which is utterly phenomenal by the way 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 does a magnificent job in establishing their personalities, which I’m sure will change as the story moves forward. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages establishing the characters, the story and the world they live in the more intriguing everything becomes.

I greatly appreciate the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge, grow and evolve. The layers open up these avenues which we want to see explored and while some will be and others won’t, for now, add this superb depth, dimension and complexity to this story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.

The interiors here are absolutely stunning. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail we see within the work is astounding. While I wish we’d see more backgrounds in offices and such the ones that depict the jungle environment are bloody magnificent to see as they really enhance and expand the moments beautifully. The way 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 fantastic. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a spectacularly talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours we see being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a complete understanding of how colour works and how to bring the most impact it can possibly have.

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This is why I love these characters at Dynamite because they take a name and character we’re somewhat familiar with and make them a character we can make do without. Already we see her as this fierce and loyal protector and where that goes from here and how she goes from being used to taking control is going to be one of those amazing journeys. This is a strong and powerful beginning to the story thanks to its writing and characterisation alongside these brilliantly rendered interiors. I’m in on this hook, line and sinker and there’s no reason this doesn’t make a lot of folks top of the pile reading.