Women of Marvel: She-Devils #1 // Review
The Savage Land: a lost world of dangerous jungles and dinosaurs in Antarctica. Shanna and her pet sabertooth tiger sense something’s wrong. There’s a presence that has come to haunt the land...and it’s looking for a body to inhabit in Women of Marvel: She-Devils #1. It’s a quick-paced, little action one-shot that leaps and tumbles its way through three different chapters with three different creative teams. The story is framed by writers Stephanie Phillips, Cherie Dimaline and Alison Sampson. The story is passed through the hands of three different art teams including artists Federica Muzzo, Kelsey Ramsay and Sampson. It’s a fun stand-alone that points to strong potential that’s still largely untapped with Marvel.
The Savage land is just one location that the entity looks to inhabit. It may not find the right space in the right place with her, but it will find a number of other targets including the Wolverine known as Laura Kinney and the Daredevil known as Elektra. It might be able to do some serious damage to the world as it looks for a host, but it’s going to find quite a bit of challenge in the women it finds itself facing. These are powerful people who would prefer not to be the vessel of some otherworldly entity.
Philips’ script embraces the art quite well. Shanna is right at home on the comics page. She’s part of a jungle woman action tradition that goes back to some of the earliest comic books. It’s nice to see Philips setting-up the format and allowing the story to move across the page as it makes its way over the Daredevil and Wolverine. Dimaline sets-up a nice, friendly training session between the two leads and another warrior. It might hav been nice to have Erica Schultz handle that chapter as she has been working quite extensively with both characters, but Dimaline handles the drama between them and the antagonist quite well.
Sampson wraps things-up quite nicely in an ending the could have felt quite rushed if she hadn’t finessed the situation with the right kind of energy. The free flow of action across the page suits the climax of the issue quite well. Ramsay’s work in the middle chapter deftly establishes the visuals that Sampson works with in the final chapter. The two artists are distinctly different, but they both manage a very fluid execution between the two of them. Muzzo has a lot of fun with Shanna, who looks right at home on the page next to Zabu as they both fend-off the magic.
Honestly...there’s no reason why Shanna can’t hav a more prominent run on the page under her own title. Elektra and Laura are doing quite well under their own titles. Phillips and Muzzo make a strong case for clean, simple action storytelling with a powerful lead in Shanna. It would be fascinating to see what Phillips could do with a character inspired by the more noble end of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
