Lady Rawhide / Lady Zorro #2
Cover A Main: Joyce Chin
Writer: Shannon Eric Denton
Art: Rey Villegas
Genre: Western, Action/Adventure
Publication Date: April 2015
Lady Rawhide and Lady Zorro set out to find the men responsible for the abduction of the village girls but their trail leads them into a remote mining camp! Death is at every turn in a town full of men with nothing to lose but none of it is as dangerous as the women running the brothel! Have Lady Zorro and Lady Rawhide finally met their match?
On the trail of the desperados who raided a village, kidnapped the girls, and vamoosed, our title heroines are determined to bring the girls home. When the story picks up, Rawhide and “Lady Z” are a full day’s ride behind their quarry, but the path is easy to follow… The slavers are taking their newest acquisitions to a nearby town, to be sold off to the local brothel. With an understanding of the depravity that awaits the girls, the two pick up the pace.
If you’ve read any of my posts before, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that anything pulp holds a special place in my heart. Here we have a great example of old concepts given new life with the simple use of switched gender roles. Lady Rawhide, a character spun out of the Zorro series by Don McGregor in 1995, has seen several rebirths over the years. Lady Zorro, created by Matt Wagner (another favorite of mine) for Dynamite Entertainment upholds the spirit of her roots. Together, the duo come off of the page as a force to be reckoned with.
The story is pretty straight forward, and has seen use a-plenty. A group of innocent girls are taken away from their homes by “very bad men”, to be bartered off and used by other “very bad men”. Enter the strong female lead who’s seen her share of abuse at the hands of men, and is determined not to let it happen again if she can possibly stop it. The fact that the story isn’t new doesn’t take much away here, as in this case its written with a great eye toward the subjects’ pulp adventure roots. Lady Rawhide comes across as the action hungry two-gun cowgirl, and Lady Zorro represents the noble hero on a sword swinging quest for justice. The two compliment each other well, each with their own individual voice and personality.
The artwork here is solid, with a great eye for the action it works to represent. Artist Rey Villegas handles the character design well… not a feat to be dismissed given the characters he’s working with. Let’s face it, the term “cheesecake” in this case isn’t meant to refer to a delicious desert. The ladies are meant to look good doing what they do, and in different hands they could have easily fallen into a series of “strike a sexy pose” panels that would have done a disservice to the book overall.
Is it Shakespeare? No, it is not. Is it a good story with an eye toward entertainment and adventure? It absolutely is. Cagekicker approved…
