Starring Sonya Devereaux Warrior Woman Death Team 5 #1

Starring Sonya Devereaux: Warrior Woman Death Team 5 #1

American Mythology Productions 2021

Written by Todd Livingston & Nick Capetanakis

Illustrated & Lettered by Brendon & Brian Fraim

Coloured by James Couts

Hollywood's 306th best actress stars in the hilarious, action-packed sword & sorcery movie Warrior Woman: Death Team 5. When Warrior Woman Eena (Sonya Devereaux) is forced out of retirement to search for kidnapped Princess Harlotta, she re-assembles the mighty, all-female Death Team to combat evil Lord Tombstroke. But can they stop fighting amongst themselves long enough to save the kingdom from tyranny and a moat-load of misogyny?

This is one of those guilty pleasure books that I will wholeheartedly own up to. It really is as silly as they come but at the same time it takes itself seriously in a way that only the best tongue-in-cheek style of storytelling can pull off. What Todd & Nick manage to pull off here is the equivalent to any number of horror screen sirens who make their living in the genre and travel the Horrorhound style circuit of conventions knowing full well that it’s thanks to their tits & ass as well as their ability to simply scream is what makes them so bloody popular.

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 exceptionally well. There really is something humorous about the way that we see this unfold and unashamedly Sonya will flirt to get something she wants whether it’s a part in a film or simply some sushi. The character development that we see here is fantastic and it’s a combination of the dialogue and how we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter that fleshes them out. The pacing here is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it is definitely full of those superb moments that make you want to see more.

I really like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story are not at all subtle. The overtness of Sonja and her personality is mirrored in the direction we see the story take and I think it’s done perfectly that way. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story constantly forward is executed extremely well.

So the brothers Fraim work on the interiors here is pretty fabulous. There is something extremely familiar about Frank and Cody and I feel like have seen them somewhere before, and no not on King of the Hill or Scooby Doo. For this kind of story this is the boys have a very comic book close to cartoon style to their work and it completely fits with what we see perfectly. The attention to detail is really nicely rendered and how we see the backgrounds within the composition of the panels bring us some nice depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is great and as we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work it really shines.

​

Thank goodness there is room in the market for all kinds of books. In my humble opinion there aren’t enough feel good fun books on stands anymore so when they do come out we need to support them so we’ll see more of them. This is one of those series, it’s so intelligently done on so many levels that it’s entertaining, engaging and just a pleasure and a half to read.