In MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #4, available from Titan Comics on July 14th, 2021, Minky escapes electric booby traps, learns a saucy secret about her father, and puts Tesla’s Death Ray in the right hands.
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The Details
- Written By: Cynthia von Buhler
- Art By: Cynthia von Buhler
- Colors By: Cynthia von Buhler
- Letters By: Jim Campbell
- Cover Art By: Dean Haspiel
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: July 14, 2021
Was It Good?
It was weird.
This series is supposed to be an alternate history, noir detective story including historical figures of the time period. While the premise is certainly original, some of the Rube Goldberg-esque shenanigans Minky endures solving the mystery of Tesla’s death, and the chase to find his Death Ray plans, ventures into science fiction slapstick.
I was down on a few previous issues because the villain sets up elaborate booby traps that make no practical sense. You wind up thinking: “He set all that up and it didn’t work?!?” After a point, the hijinks become silly hijinks that von Buhler plays straight when you can’t take them seriously.
This is the last issue in this story arc, and so it’s natural to ask if the ending ties up all the loose ends in a satisfying way. Yes, all the loose ends are tied up. No, the ending isn’t satisfying, mostly because the resolutions are so quick that you don’t get to feel the impact and the main mystery (“Who killed Tesla?”) is answered with a brief bit of throwaway dialog.
In other words, more time and emotional effort were put into capturing the Nazi, exposing an NSFW bit of backstory about Minky’s father and mother that wasn’t brought up as a plot point until this issue, and finding the Death Ray plans.
Solving Tesla’s death was given about as much time and care as his dead pet pigeon stuffed in Minky’s freezer. That lack of care almost makes Tesla irrelevant to the story. All of the time spent developing a relationship between Minky and Tesla gets tossed aside in favor of the Death Ray plans and a romance between Minky and Josephine Baker, which makes for a weirdly messy (albeit complete) ending.
The art, as noted in the prior reviews, is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s static modeling, occasionally peppered in with sound effects and odd camera angles. There’s a surreal, sometimes psychedelic, quality to the art that has interesting moments, but for the most part, it looks like models standing in front of off-angle backdrops on a stage and processed through a paint filter in Photoshop. in short, this comic looks processed rather than drawn.
Overall, the ending is complete but the journey is filled with potholes and stumbles.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
When last we saw Minky Woodcock and Josephine Baker, they were tied to a chair and about to be executed by Minky’s Nazi lover/spy. Read our MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #3 review to find out how our heroes got trapped in this trap straight out of a Batman ’66 TV episode.
Before the Nazi pulls the switch to electrocute them both, Minky recalls how rubber is an insulator and whispers to Josephine to keep both feet on the ground since they’re wearing rubber boots for a rainy night. They both play dead until the Nazi leaves, so they can escape unhindered. They’re so relieved to have survived, Josephine and Minky begin a torrid love affair on the spot.
Later, Minky visits her dying father. Fearing the end is near, he divulges Minky’s mother was the real detective and she ran away when she caught him having an affair (shown in a fairly graphic flashback). Minky’s mother was so distraught, she tried to leave the island with the summer cottage but died when she fell overboard because she couldn’t swim.
At this point, it would be perfectly natural to start rubbing your temples in frustration to avoid an inevitable over the absurd left turns this comic is taking.
Minky and her father reconcile before the end. Josephine uses her international spy network connections to find the Nazi in NY and arrest him in FBI custody. And Minky sells all the Death Ray plans to all interested parties but secretly burns the real plans to keep them away from everyone.
Final Thoughts
MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #4 is a weird ending to a weird series. The story machinations are range from the odd to the absurd, and the art ranges from the odd to the bizarre. This is not a recommended read.
Score: 6/10
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