Josephine Schuller is one busy lady. She has a pair of very active twins running around their new Florida home, she’s helping her husband charm the new boss by hosting them and going to events of his liking, and she’s trying to start her own contract assassin business on her own!
Lady Killer 2 #2 brings Irving back into the mix, as she’s struggling to get rid of a body, he comes in offering to help with him and a possible business arrangement. As she’s trying to take it into consideration, she finds out that more people have taken notice of her setting up shop in a new town on her own.
The focus on the business aspect of Josie's’ work is welcomed in this issue, as she talked about going solo and the hierarchy of her former employers being mostly shrouded in mystery, there is a nice change from the business side of things catching up with her personal life in an unexpected way. Irving making an appearance while she’s with her family reminds of a Jesse Pinkman showing up at the home of Walter White during the very beginning of the relationship. But unlike Walter, Josephine already has her Heisenberg side polished and ready to work.
Joelle Jones seems comfortable drawing veteran assassin Josie. There is more attitude in her face now; her expressions cool down but her face ages ever so slightly. This is a Die Hard 2 John McClane type of Josie. She’s well lived and gone through hell to get what she wants, and now she wants to maintain it. The Josie depicted on Lady Killer 2 has miles of experience and knows the volatile nature of her current situation, as she tries to get ahead of it during this issue. During a conversation she has at a bingo hall, Josie is being praised for some of her accomplishments and the ways she has carried out some jobs. In her facial expressions, she is trying to figure out who meddles in her business, while keeping it cool and calculated. This is the moment where she would ask them to say her name and reply “you’re goddamn right.”
One of the things that felt missing in this issue was the gore. Joelle Jones’ line work and crisp lines combined with spatter of blood and body parts is something that works very well together; it was what hooked me on those first pages in from issue one in the last series. Although there is some in this issue, I am eagerly awaiting for more blood, broken bones that stick out of the skin, and bruises that make Lady Killer dance in the line between a Mad Men with assassins and a cult horror film.
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Lady Killer 2 #2
Writer/Artist: Joelle Jones
Colorist: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Crank!
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.99
Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital
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