In MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #3, available from Titan Comics on June 16th, 2021, Minky searches for clues to Tesla’s death while a Nazi agent stays one step ahead to steal Tesla’s Death Ray secret.
The Details
- Written By: Cynthia Von Buhler
- Letters By: Jim Campbell
- Cover Art By: David Mack (cover A)
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: June 16, 2021
Was It Good?
With some caveats, it’s an improvement over the second issue.
The art is still the big down for its static photo renderings and sometimes bizarre panel composition. Again, it looks like somebody took staged photos with actors and loosely traced/colored over them. It’s a style, but it’s definitely niche and doesn’t do much to enhance the writing. If anything, it’s a distraction away from the writing.
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The story does make some forward progress albeit with a few silly contrivances repeated from the last issue. Minky is definitely shrewd, clever, and knowledgeable in how to use her feminine charms to maximum effect to get what she wants.
With better art and less silly plot devices, Minky has the potential to rise to James Bond levels of mythology.
If you think we’re being too hard on the art, decide for yourself by looking at Titan’s MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #3 preview.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Minky is in jail!
At the end of the last issue (read our MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #2 review to get caught up), Minky was arrested as a potential suspect in Tesla’s death. She’s eventually arrested by Dr. Trump, but not before she swipes a police badge from a naive, young patrolman.
Back on the streets, Minky pays a visit to Josephine Baker requesting she uses her French Resistance contacts to find out more about the (possible) Nazi agent she slept with.
Minky then goes back to Tesla’s hotel to question the maid who found Tesla’s body. Tesla’s body was found peacefully lying on his hotel bed holding a dead pigeon. The maid has the pigeon’s body in a box with the intention of burying it in the park, but Minky offers to do the deed and takes the bird off the maid’s hands.
Later, Minky callously tosses the dead bird box aside while she calls her brother to accompany her to a lounge where the astrologer, who occupied Tesla’s old room, works. They find the astrologer and ask her questions about her interactions with Tesla. The astrologer explains she wouldn’t turn over her room to Tesla for astrological reasons, but Tesla did ask her to hold on to a safe deposit box key for him in case anyone tried to rob his current room.
The astrologer gives Minky the safe deposit key as Tesla’s friend, but while the ladies talk a member of the stage act is electrocuted while skating on a stage-built ice rink. The electrocution was deliberate, and Minky decides it was an intentional distraction. How or why she came to this conclusion is never convincingly stated. Also, the number of stars that needed to align to set an electrocution trap for the skater without anyone noticing simply to provide a distraction is as ridiculous as the electrocution booby trap in the park from the last issue.
The distraction was intended to keep the party at the lounge while somebody breaks into the astrologer’s hotel room and steals Tesla’s safe deposit box key. Undeterred by the theft, Minky heads to the bank as soon as it opens to intercept the thief. Unfortunately, she’s too late, and the bank manager’s description of the man who opened the box closely resembles Minky’s Nazi lover.
Fortunately, the box contained nothing resembling death ray plans. Only a photo of a pigeon and a pile of birdseed.
Later, Minky revisits Josephine Baker about her request for intel. Josephine’s contacts confirm Minky’s lover is indeed a Nazi officer who goes by the nickname Scarface. They make plans to investigate Tesla’s old lab on Long Island as soon as Josephine is off from her last show of the night.
We conclude the issue with a late-night trip to a lab.
How Does It End?
Josephine and Minky aren’t the only ones searching the lab. Minky gets a little roughed up. Minky and Josephine are in for a hair-raising experience.
Final Thoughts
MINKY WOODCOCK: THE GIRL WHO ELECTRIFIED TESLA #3 shifts more fully into detective mode with a very niche, static art style, and a few silly plot devices. While the historical fiction aspects are interesting, this story probably works much better in novel form.
Score: 5.5/10
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