Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #3

reviewed by Simon Breeze

I'm going to say this now: There Be Spoilers Ahead - you have been warned!

The previous issue of Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness finished with Sydney Savage of the Danger Girls - my favorite Danger Girl if you're curious - leaving the team on a solo mission to 'help' Ash get out of jail.

We pick up this issue as Sydney stands on a roof-top opposite the building where Ash is being held by the authorities and is about to swing into action by James Bond/Batman style zip-lining between buildings and stealthily laser-cutting her way through a window before smoke bombing and kung-fuing her way through the guards.

At this point we are treated to a bit of back story for the character of Sydney, starting from when she was a young girl and she broke into an aquarium to swim with the octopus, through to her teenage years of sneaking into rock concerts, and then to finally going to military school and being recruited by Deuce into the Danger Girl team. We even get to find out why she wears a vintage black leather cat suit. You didn't even get that bit of information in the original Danger Girl comics!

We now get to meet Doctor Lauren Alia, I would just like to add that if my Doctor looked like Dr. Alia I would be permanently ill. Lauren is tasked with analyzing a new detainee called John Doe (Ash) who suffers form severe paranoid hallucinations. It is not long before Sydney has knocked the good doctor out, stripped her out of her uniform and disguised herself as her.

Oddly, Ash has similar plans for one of the prison guards who he tricks into his cell, knocks him unconscious, steals his uniform and makes his way out of the prison. That is until he encounters his doctor.

After a bit of a scuffle, Dr. Alia (Sydney) and the prison guard (Ash) realise that they are both after the same thing, the Necronomicon!

The story now shifts to North Africa to catch up with the guys who are currently in possession of the deadly book as they plan how to get the book to the buyer. All is not well in the camp though as one of the henchmen is acting a little strange ... and when he is confronted by one of the other henchmen about his behavior he is quickly uncovered as a spy: none other than Agent Zero!

If you have never read Danger Girl this last page reveal will mean very little to you. If like me you are a fan of Danger Girl you will have wee'd in your underpants more than a little when you turned to that last page! [Oh dear - Zaius] To then be teased even further with the solicitation for the next issue stating '... But when Agent Zero crosses paths with an old adversary from the former Hammer Empire, will his thirst for revenge put Abby in the middle of the crossfire ...?'

Now, me, I squealed like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert: The Hammer Empire! Revenge! Old adversary! - Queue squeal!

What an amazing issue this is. No, scrub that. What a fantastic mini series this is turning out to be!

I haven't had this much fun and excitement reading a Danger Girl comic in years. So-much-so I'm even planning to go back and re-read my collection of the earlier Danger Girl stories once this mini series has finished its run. Andy Hartnell's so on the ball with his writing in this series he is falling nothing short of genius. Throw in the brilliant artwork of Chris Bolson and Adriano Lucas and I think my head may just very well explode in a joygasm!

I give this issue a five out of five boomsticks!

Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #3
Written by Andy Hartnell, art by Chris Bolson, colours by Adriano Lucas, letters by Marshall Dillon, covers by Paul Renaud (50%) and Nick Bradshaw (50%)
Published by Dynamite & IDW


Many thanks to Simon for his thoughts - after his earlier reviews I've started reading some of the original Danger Girl stories and I must say I'm loving them: they have a real sense of tongue-in-check adventure that I'm finding very enjoyable.