Lucy Claire: Redemption #5 // Review
A legendary werewolf hunter has been captured by those who want her dead. They’re not going to kill her right away, though. That’s going to be a bit of a mistake on their part as writer/artist/letterer John Upchurch’s Lucy Claire: Redemption reaches issue #5. The action-horror series continues with a degree of style that keeps it entertaining without being altogether engaging. The story moves along quite briskly, but it falters whenever its attempts to do anything other than acton, which isn’t executed in this issue with a coherent enough hand to carry a somewhat enjoyable issue.
Wolf hunter Lucy Claire has been captured by her estranged husband. He’s beating the hell out of her. He knows where their kids are. She doesn’t. She would like nothing more than to be reunited with them, but she’s going to get a lot of blood beaten out of her before she can hope to get into a position where she can do so. Those hunters who wanted her aid must now come to aid HER, in breaking free from the abusive fists of her husband. Magic erupts as things get chaotic for Lucy Clare and her colleagues.
Lucy Claire getting the hell beaten out of her at the beginning of the chapter, doesn’t necessarily make her interesting. It DOES make her a badass, though, which goes a long way towards making this issue fun. Given the opportunity to extricate herself from the rack that she’s tied to, Lucy is given plenty of opportunity to kick some ass, which is very cool and pretty fun. It’s just not very engaging. Upchurch tells a good action story, but it isn’t rooted deeply enough in emotion to feel as deep as possible.
The lack of depth in the story wouldn’t be missed so much if the action was framed in a way that felt more exhilarating. The blood spatters and percussion and the relentless slices and things are all suitably brutal. The action isn’t directed across the page in a way that adequately harnesses all of the brutality, though. It’s all a messy blur. It’s beautiful and everything, but it lacks impact in the chaos of the combat that Lucy and her companions are engaging in. It’s all a crazy mess that’s a lot less fun than a crazy mess should be if it’s going to dominate an issue the way it dominates this fifth installment of Redemption.
Upchurch has everything in the right order to tell an engaging story, but it’s not put together on the page in a way that would make it work. It’s entirely possible to take this series, cut it in half, and reveal a really aggressively impressive story. However, it’s just not coming together in this fifth issue. Lucy Claire is very cool and stylish. Given the right angles, she could be a part of a much more interesting story.
