GIULIETTA ROMEO: HITWOMAN (ONE-SHOT), from Dynamite Comics on December 21st, 2022, finds Jennifer Blood’s greatest adversary on an FBI prison plane back to Italy when the flight experiences unexpected turbulence.
The Details
- Written by: Fred Van Lente
- Art by: Robert Carey
- Colors by: Ellie Wright
- Letters by: Jeff Eckleberry
- Cover art by: Leirix Li (cover A)
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: December 21, 2022
Is It Good?
Well, GIULIETTA ROMEO: HITWOMAN (ONE-SHOT) is a weird one. Fred Van Lente’s premise is a wild ride with eclectic characters, bizarre developments, and all the makings of a potential cult hit. However, the issue has equally weird disconnect points that don’t make any sense. Let’s get into it.
Before we get into nits and picks, Fred Van Lente’s central premise is a weird, mondo, cult cinema fever dream that makes Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS look tame. In other words, the premise is creatively awesome. Weird but awesome. You have Aryan Nation boys shooting planes out of the sky, grotesquely deformed (from inbreeding?) Nazi guards, mentally-disturbed Italian gangsters, and a secret U-Boat island with hidden treasures and mysteries. This comic is the Jackson Pollack painting equivalent of cult storytelling.
On the premise alone, this would have been a recommended pick. However, the execution is where this one-shot struggles.
First, Robert Carey’s composition and line work are rock solid, but the lines are not clean. Rough, sketchy lines work in a few spots, but not in others. Some characters’ faces look great (Prospero), and others do not (Ferdinand). The scenes look fully rendered, but the book has an overall unpolished appearance.
Second, there’s a scene where the sequence of events doesn’t make sense. In the opening act, the FBI plane containing Don Antonio, Giulietta Romeo, and Ferdinand is shot down by an anti-aircraft gun. After reading through the sequence multiple times, it’s unclear how anyone escaped the plane.
Last but not least, the issue ends with a surprise reveal about Giulietta that strains credibility, and the resolution is too fast and too easy. You could make the case that the mondo, cult nature of the story allows for wacky resolutions, so whether or not the ending is a down point is up to you.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with Giulietta Romeo and Don Antonio on their way back to Italy, courtesy of an FBI prison plane after both criminals fell victim to Jennifer Blood’s vigilante justice. When the plane passes over an uncharted island, a small boy fires an anti-aircraft gun and shoots the plane out of the sky. Somehow, Giulietta Romeo manages to escape the plane through a gravity-defying set of maneuvers.
Giulietta swims to the shore of the strange island, where she encounters a grotesquely-deformed man wearing a Nazi SS soldier uniform. The guard, Caliban, quickly explains the island is an artificial U-Boat refuel station built during WWII, and he’s the descendant of the Nazi families selected to inhabit and run the island. However, an Italian gangster, Prospero, recently discovered the island through Mussolini’s old records, and he’s taken over the island’s weapons and treasures.
Giulietta offers to help Caliban in exchange for his help getting off the island. We conclude the issue with creepy, sadistic kids, a nutty daughter, and a family grudge.
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Final Thoughts
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GIULIETTA ROMEO: HITWOMAN (ONE-SHOT) is a bizarre comic with a wild premise (in a good way), and an equally bizarre ending (in a bad way). The collection of eclectic characters generates instant curiosity for more, but the hoaky plot and the too-convenient ending make this one-shot a headscratcher.
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