LADY HEL #2, from Dynamite Comics on September 21st, 2022, brings the titular character back to Earth, where she finds people are no longer dying. When death stops, so does her power.
The Details
- Written by: Erik Burnham
- Art by: Zhengis Tasbolatov
- Colors by: Salvatore Aiala
- Letters by: Dave Sharpe
- Cover art by: Lucio Parrillo (cover A)
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: September 21, 2022
Is It Good?
LADY HEL #2 is an intriguing comic that expands the mythology surrounding Lady Hel and what happens to the multiverse when the natural order is disrupted. This issue is almost all exposition and backstory, but the information is new enough and interesting enough to hold your attention.
Credit where credit is due. Burnham presents a few big ideas in his script. Burnham’s plot revolves around Lady Hel finding her back to Earth, the consequences of her absence, and the stakes if she doesn’t resolve her current predicament quickly. In short, you get truth and consequences in one neat little issue. Almost everything you learn is new information about the character, so if you’re a fan of Chaos! characters, this issue will be a must-have.
However, not much happens to move the plot forward in this issue as it’s nearly all exposition and backstory. When Lady Hel makes it back to Earth, she soon crosses paths with an old enemy, Lady Demon, who had a hand in Lady Hel’s predicament. Their interaction reads like a villain monologue trope, but it works well enough because Lady Demon presumes Lady Hel is powerless to stop it. The villain monologue is a trope for a good reason because you know the hero will use that information to save the day. Therefore, you could argue this issue leans too far into becoming a cliché.
Tosbolatov’s art is average to okay in this issue. There’s an awful lot of illustration-style art that looks flat, but Tosbolatov incorporates enough action lines to add a minimum amount of energy. Admittedly, this is mild praise, but the plastic quality of the art is unmistakable. It’s good plastic but still plastic.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our LADY HEL #1 review to find out how she got into this mess.
We begin with Lady Hel spinning through the limbo that separates universes. Using what little power she has left, she searches out a spot that leads back to her home universe and punches through with a desperate swing of her scythe.
Back on Earth, Lady Hel soon learns that people aren’t dying. They aren’t zombies or undead things. People simply stop dying, and without the power drawn from dead souls, Lady Hel’s power begins to fade. After a few frustrating scenes where Lady Hel tries to “encourage” death, she’s visited by Lady Demon who comes to gloat.
It turns out Lady Demon helped Persephone in Tartarus in exchange for a powerful favor in return. We conclude the issue with several revelations, taunts, and a deep, dark prison.
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Final Thoughts
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LADY HEL #2 is a decent entry in the series that fills in a ton of exposition to explain Lady Hel’s current dilemma as well as filling in pieces of backstory from her last encounter with Purgatori. The art is serviceable, and the conflict has stakes, so this is a mildly recommended pick.
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