Kate works for a private investigation firm, specialising in honey traps to ensnare rich philanderers trying to pick her up. When what appeared to be a standard job goes horribly wrong, she is pulled into a dangerous conspiracy involving shady gangsters, sinister assassins and dark secrets from her own forgotten past.
Action stories with female stars are becoming ever more typical as the years pass, but rather than portraying Kate as an unparalleled badass from the off, when Lady Hollywood begins she is instead an ordinary woman, albeit one with an unusual job that potentially puts her in harm’s way more than is strictly necessary. Further normalising her is a look at her home life where she takes care of her wheelchair-bound teenage sister, who is determined not to be a burden. There is an unspoken possibility that Kate has some latent and forgotten skills that might soon come to the fore, but if so they’re a part of the mysterious past just now catching up with her and something she is unaware she can call on.
Writer George Lennox’s previous titles, Vietnam Zombie Holocaust and Vampires Everywhere, each had a distinctly cinematic aesthetic to them. Lady Hollywood continues this tradition, but instead of the brutal horror scenarios of those two, this is primed to become a comic book version of a vengeance flick from the ‘70s, a few lines of dialogue even echoing famous quotations from gangster movies.
Despite the throwback stylings, several details anchor the story in the present day, suggesting that traditional motivators like lust, greed and jealousy will remain as timeless as they ever have. Counter to the comic’s style, setting and very title, actual filmmaking is only peripheral to the plot, the story instead undercutting the glitz and glamour of Hollywood by swan-diving into the sleaze on which it thrives.
The cast of individuals in varying flavours of Not To Be Fucked With keep encounters tense and unpredictable, each an ingredient of a melting pot of violence threatening to boil over, at the centre of which is a sinister figure whose full motivations are yet to be fully revealed.
The full-colour artwork infuses the story with an effervescent vitality, even in scenes where people are merely taking. Life swelters by day beneath a burning azure sky, while at night the heat of the scorching California sun is slow to depart and darkness is lit up in numerous panels tinted in varying shades of a single colour.
There’s a lot to unpack in very little time, but this first issue of Lady Hollywood is an enthralling start that promises some high-energy action to kick off very soon.
LADY HOLLYWOOD #1 / AUTHOR: GEORGE LENNOX / ARTIST: RUSSELL MARK OLSON / PUBLISHER: CULT EMPIRE COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
