Sunday, November 26, 2023

Sunday Splash Page #298

 
"Riposte", in Lady Rawhide (vol. 1) #5, by Don McGregor (writer), Mike Mayhew (penciler), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Steve Buccelato and Company (colorists), Kenny Lopez (letterer)

As someone who bought a lot of Topps baseball cards when I was younger, it's strange to think of them as publishing comics, but here we are. Looking over the history, it's mostly licensed stuff. Xena, X-Files, Jurassic Park, Mars Attacks.

Other than X-Files, which ran 42(!) issues, it's mostly mini-series, but Zorro made it an even dozen, if you count the zero issue. In issue 3, Don McGregor introduced Lady Rawhide, a costumed vigilante that hated Capitan Monastario for blinding her brother, but had no great love for Zorro, either. She might have thought he was hot, but that's entirely different.

That's all background for this mini-series, where Anita Santiago and her aunt have traveled to San Francisco to stay with an old acquaintance, while Anita investigates whether rumored herbs might be able to help her brother. Although Mayhew draws the brother's injuries in flashback as less a burn around the eyes, and more something spread across the face. Lot of boils or blisters, part of the mustache gone, and the caption boxes say he suffered partial paralysis of the face. Maybe that's meant as Anita's memory of what he looked like in the immediate aftermath, filtered through her horror at what happened, or her present anger at Monastario.

Anyway, the story is not about Lady Rawhide's Search for Some Good Weed, but her hunt for a serial killer stalking the town and targeting women. She rescued a doctor from an anchored Russian ship, as the mob singled him out, but that won't do any good if she can't find the true killer.

McGregor layers in the mystery of the killer around her hosts, as Don Rafael is up to something that takes him out of the hacienda at night, and leads to much shouting between he and his wife. But the wife's also a crack shot. But their son likes to go off in the woods alone to hunt. This is all set against Anita's efforts to investigate without appearing an improper young woman. At least, when she's not dying her hair crimson and leaping around swordfighting in that outfit.

McGregor has several character comment on the outfit, but also notes on page 1 of the first issue that's exactly what Anita was going for: a distraction. But also that it's better suited for Los Angeles' climate than San Francisco's chilly air. And she made herself some chaps for when she's riding a horse to avoid chafing. Mayhew draws them as huge, fluffy things, like what you'd see a character wearing on a dude ranch for kicks, rather than what a vaquero would traditionally wear. But with her costume lacking pants entirely, maybe the extra padding's necessary. 

The story ends with more than one mystery solved, but not much in the way of happy resolutions.

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