Three years ago, a serial killer was apprehended, and a woman saved from his clutches. Now she is dead. Is her then rescuer really the only suspect in her murder? Find out in The Ribbon Queen #1 from AWA Studios!

THE RIBBON QUEEN #1

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Jacen Burrows
Colorist: Dan Brown
Publisher: AWA Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 26, 2023

Previously in The Ribbon Queen: Three years ago, the NYPD had a victory of sorts when a police tactical unit rescued a young woman from a serial killer. They work hard to protect and maintain their image, and this was a feather in their collective cap. But now it seems that success may not be what they thought…

TROUBLE FROM WITHIN

Part police procedural and part tale of supernatural horror, The Ribbon Queen #1 opens in a down-to-earth way as Detective Amy Sun asks to talk to the Captain behind a closed office door. Amy has been the bearer of troublesome news before, and he is not eager to hear more. She asks if he remembers the serial killer thing from a few years before. He does, informing us that this was the NYPD’s one huge P.R. win of that year. Their tactical team rescued a young woman on the brink of becoming a serial killer’s next victim. You cannot get much more dramatic than that.

But that woman, Bella Rheinbeck moved back to the city after being away for a few years and returned to N.Y.U. Now she is found dead on the sidewalk below her apartment. Perhaps she jumped, but she also had a fatal knife wound to the heart. Sun suspects the leader of the tactical squad, Keith Connolly, and she has a whole list of circumstantial reasons. He has a history of drawing complaints from female prisoners and officers both, although nothing is on the record. He visited her Bella in the hospital. When she returned, he showed up at her classes and other places she frequented like a stalker. She also has a video shot by a friend of Bella’s which shows him coming onto her while she pushes him away. The Captain asks her to hold off for just a day.

Sun pays a visit to the medical examiner. While Bella might have survived the fall itself, the knife wound was fatal. Could she have stabbed herself? Highly unlikely.

Eventually, Sun goes home for the evening and is surprised to find an uninvited guest. Connolly is sitting in her apartment. Sun’s hand goes to her gun, and Connolly makes mention of a prior incident where Sun apparently shot someone, and it got swept away. Connolly insists that he is innocent, but still has the threat that if Sun goes after him, what will happen to her life? He is one of NYPD’s biggest heroes, after all.

The following day, Sun tells the Captain what happened with Connolly and makes a comment that indicates she might be paying a visit to his house. Indeed, she is walking through Connolly’s neighborhood when she hears screaming from Connolly’s house. She announces herself and goes in. The screaming is coming from the basement. Gun drawn, she cautiously makes her way downstairs and finds narrow strips of flesh lying on them. This does not prepare her for what she is about to find.

MURDER AND CONSEQUENCES

The art of The Ribbon Queen #1 is so grounded in reality that we do not seriously suspect anything out of the ordinary will be in play. Certainly, Bella’s murder is inexplicably dramatic – why would someone stab her in the heart and then heave her out the window as well? But even before we learn about that, we can see from Sun’s expression that she is concerned. She may not particularly like Connolly, but all her leads keep pointing to him. It’s only fair to bring the Captain in and let him know where things are headed. And we can see from his response that if word gets out, nothing good is going to come of this.

When Sun and Connolly face-off, there is no love lost between them. Sun finds Connolly sitting on her couch, arms spread across the back as though it is his. This is a power move on his part, but she is a detective, and she will not back down. This is her home, and he has no business being there. But Connolly does not need to use physical strength. He is smart enough to bring up a situation where she shot someone, and it got squelched. This is a thread of corruption that parallels Connolly’s issues. They are at a stalemate.

BOTTOM LINE: A PROCEDURAL WITH A DOSE OF HORROR

The Ribbon Queen #1 is interesting and full of tension right from the start, when it faces the intersection of a high-profile murder and a suspect from within the police. The dark twist at the end promises that we have barely scratched the surface of the true mystery at hand.

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