Lucy Claire series 1-4
Image Comics has a number of issues for free on ebook. Mostly, #1s, and one of the ones on offer is Lucy Claire: Redempation. I read the first issue after picking it up as a freebie, and then brought the next 3 issues. Issue 5 isn’t out to July 22, and I really do not want to talk about that fact.
So Lucy Claire was responsible for pretty much killing a bunch of werewolves (or werewolf like creatures) and then eventually went quiet. It had something to do with her children. But then the wolves come back and a Gang of Four tracks down Lucy to get her to come save their town.
What is there to love:
1. Lucy Claire herself - a flawed hero, true and in some ways a flawed hero we have already seen, but she is flawed without that “tough as nails exterior that hides a softee” cliche going on. This makes her more human, and also indicates why she still has friends. She is a woman of color - her grandmother was Japanese (and the story uses the term kami, so) but she is also black.
2. The whole cast is diverse in terms of race, gender, and age. Can’t speak towards sexuality yet.
3. The group sent to find her consists of two men and two women. Witty repartee galore, but, thankfully, no heart eyes or anything. They work well together.
4. I would die for Olive who would braid your hair while you recover from wounds. Honesty, if she was with frozen Cap, she would have done quite a bit of work on him.
5. The use of werewolves and Japanese myth is great. Issue #4’s ending (a cliffhanger) ends with a hint that there are also might be some ties to New Orleans and Voodoo.
6. The kick ass action.
7. While a comic book and therefore limited in format, the book does deal with the ramifications of depression and PTSD in a realistic way.
8. The complete lack of sexualiization of the female characters. I mean they may be wearing shorts but they are not all hanging out.