Writer: Corinna Bechko

Artists: Jonathan Lau

For the reader who enjoys World War II comics, Dynamite’s latest volume of Miss Fury may be worth a look.  The titular character is a classic Golden Age mystery woman, your typical costumed civilian who put on a suit to punch out gangsters and Germans. Lesser known than her peers like Captain America and Superman, Miss Fury’s the kind of character who’s bounced through various companies before finally ending up at Dynamite, joining other pulp characters like the Shadow and the Green Hornet. This week’s issue marks her second volume at Dynamite, this time under the helm of Corrina Bechko and Jonathan Lau.

This newest arc finds Miss Fury working late at her New York engineering firm when the designs for a new set of ship’s rotors are stolen. Throughout the issue, Fury enters into a (no pun) furious quest to get the plans back, as they’re to be sold to the nation of Brazil in a friendly gesture to get them to ally with the United States in the ongoing war. Fury struggles to both maintain her civilian life and get the plans back, all while trying not to let on to her friends that she leads a double life. Meanwhile, we get our first hints that whoever stole the plans has some uncanny plans for them…

Corinna Bechko is clearly having fun with the story, as her initial Miss Fury arc appears to be setting up a pulpy science-fiction adventure in a World War II setting. This story has all the familiar elements of a decent Golden Age story: a masked heroine, gangsters, and suggestions of a larger (and likely Nazi-related) conspiracy. Only two things are missing.  One, readers unfamiliar with the character don’t get much of an introduction to her–it just jumps right into the action. This is the kind of book that could benefit from a one-page introduction to her origin and motivations. Obviously we don’t want to waste story for a rehashed origin, but since she’s a more obscure character, new readers may need something to work from.

The other is that it’d be good if the story engaged in some of Miss Fury’s life as a female superhero in the 1940s, where sexism was a little more overt. We get some pieces of this, as Fury gets a little sidelined by her male peers in her civilian job, and the police don’t take seriously that a woman could have beat up a bunch of men. Bechko may not want to overdo this angle, but it’s worth looking into for future issues.

Artist Jonathan Lau is a great fit for Miss Fury as well. His art is reminiscent of Jae Lee’s in his use of realistic designs mixed with a hefty, mod-setting use of shadows. Lau doesn’t appear to strictly imitate Lee, but it’s the closest match to his art style and it fits the seedy setting of World War II New York very well.  He also appropriately uses fashion and architecture to give the story an appropriate feel for a 1940s period piece.

Miss Fury isn’t the comic of the century, but it is a competent work and worth consideration for readers who are looking for a pulpy Golden Age throwback story.

Rating: Three and a half throwbacks out of five.