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Series: Lady Mechanika
Author & Illustrator: Joe Benítez
Genre: Steampunk, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Benítez Productions
Date: November 2015
Length: 152 pages
This book was free form NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review
Discover a beautifully illustrated steampunk world of airships, monsters, and one courageous but haunted heroine...
The tabloids dubbed her "Lady Mechanika," the sole survivor of a mad scientist's horrific experiments which left her with mechanical limbs. Having no memory of her captivity or her former life, Lady Mechanika eventually built a new life for herself as an adventurer and private investigator, using her unique abilities to solve cases the proper authorities couldn't or wouldn't handle. But she never stopped searching for the answers to her own past.
Set in a fictionalized steampunk Victorian England, a time when magic and superstition clashed with new scientific discoveries and inventions, Lady Mechanika chronicles a young woman's obsessive search for her identity as she investigates other mysteries involving science and the supernatural.
This volume collects the entire first Lady Mechanika mini-series The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse, including its prequel chapter The Demon of Satan's Alley, plus a complete cover art gallery.
Description from Goodreads
Airships, corsets, mechanical limbs, cyborg nightmares, and a mysterious heroine with a sense of humor. Lady Mechanika is an intriguing story that's beautifully illustrated and packed full of everything that makes steampunk fun.
What I liked
Concept: Beautiful mysterious woman with equally mysterious mechanical prosthetics and no memory - not an entirely original idea. (Replace the prosthetics with plastic surgery and you have the plot to every 1980's soap opera.) Mechanika doesn't know what happened to her before she was rescued from a laboratory, and her life after rescue was filled with further experimentation and loss. She eventually broke free and became her own woman. While she wants to know the truth of her origins and prevent this from happening to anybody else, her need for justice hasn't turned her into a brooding nut ball (*cough* Bruce Wayne *cough*). Mechanika has built a life she enjoys and it gave the story a fresh feel.I loved the illustrations so much: So much love for the pretty! It reminded me a lot of Jim Lee's work (one of my favorite comic book artists) which should be no suprise since Benítez used to work for Wildstorm. There was a lot of detail that gave the book a true steampunk feel as opposed to simply putting bowler hats and goggles on everyone and calling it a day. I also liked that while cleavage was prominent, women were fully clothed. Benítez doesn't shy away from the fact that his main character is beautiful and sexy, but she also doesn't end up in a shredded bikini after every fight. Another character even points out how Lady Mechanika is a stylish dresser without losing sight of the fact that she's got to fight in her outfits. I also really liked the scenes that would be in shades of gray with just a pop of color.
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| Lady Mechanica meets her biggest fan - Allie |
Humor: Overly serious characters can be exhausting and I enjoyed that book was balanced out with humor. It also made Lady Mechanica a lot more fun. She was more than a gorgeous mystery woman who would break into a floating fortress and casually throw guards overboard, she had a lighter side as well.
What I'm on the fence about
A bit too much philosophizing: In chapter two Mechanika is thinking about the nature of memory and how sometimes memories must be repressed to save yourself. It was interesting and gave insight into her theories regarding her own memory loss. But it also seemed to really slow down the pace of the story.
More of a teaser than something to really hook you: This is a collection of the original mini series, so it's more of a taste test then a juicy bite. I would have loved to see more of her other adventures as opposed to everything being tied to her past. That being said, it was a good taste test and I do want to read more, so I'll keep an eye out for more Mechanika.
Allie: Oh Allie, you little scamp. I can't decide if I like miss sassy pants or if she's just too rude and should be grounded to her room. She's one of those characters that could be fun or quickly cross the line into twee and irritating. We'll have to see how the story goes. She did remind me a lot of the comic-con villain "The Uber Fan", a fan who tries to "out fan" others by knowing all kinds of uninteresting minutiae and discounting other levels of fandom. (I wonder if Benítez was trying to make a point there.)
Mechanika maybe needs to kill more people: A lot of her problems would have been solved if she'd killed the psychos when she had the chance. She keeps leaving people alive and then really regretting it later. But that would have killed the story too.
Rating: 4.0
The humor, entertaining narrative, and Mechanika's compassion saved this from feeling like a generic steampunk story. Maybe a bit generous of a rating because I didn't feel that this was a meaty enough story to get really hooked, but I have hope in this series. The illustrations are great, it's a cool concept, and a good steampunk story. Maybe try the first volume or two from the library before buying.
Do you have any steampunk books you recommend? Any comic versions out there that I are worth picking up?
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