I heard I should pick up this book and that it was pretty good. Yet, I enjoyed so much of the book, but also so little. Why you ask? Well let's get on with the story breakdown. Lady Mechinka is following clues about the mechanical girl she found which leads her to Cirque du Romani. There she finds troubles and alliances to help her in her search. Lady Mechinka is quick and elusive in the fights she gets into and even thwarts off a panther. Mr. Lewis her drunken assistant isn’t much help as he gets tied up by tiny clowns. While she is there she finds very important information about the mechanical girl like her identity and who may have taken her. The events here lead her back to the city of Mechinka, which is where she started from I might add. We enter Mechinka in what seems to be a World’s Fair type event or "Mechinka City Convention of all Things Innovative." The head of events at the convention is Lord Blackpool and he has some big unveiling to do that reminds Lady M of her past.
The story is written ok; it’s slow and trying to be mysterious but really doesn’t hide anything. The characters are written well though, they have depth and life and can interactive well with the other characters. Everything is here to make a good story with villains, twists in plot and heroes but nothing is coming together. The story at time was painstakingly hard to read because it was slow and didn’t grab my attention.
Now let’s get to the great part of the book the art. Every character is drawn well and individual uniqueness can be seen. Let’s try to describe it late 1800’s to early 1900’s steampunk style. The details are amazing the metal parts are more art than just a simple function. The micro-phone, Blackpool’s jaw, the air ships and knives all are pieces of work rather than function. The cover art has immense layers of metals that blend in organic material as well giving it a very cool look.
Over all I hope the story starts pulling together and picks up pace to become something great. It would be horrible to see great art work wasted on a subpar story.
Score: 3/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Joe Benitez Publisher: Aspen Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 12/21/2011