Something dangerous lurks in the depths of the Siberian wilderness and only one monster hunter can find out what it is. Your Major Spoilers review of Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake #1.

LADY MECHANIKA: THE DEVIL IN THE LAKE #1

Writer: Joe Benitez and M.M. Chen
Artist: Siya Oum
Colorist: Beth Sotelo
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 4th, 2024

Previously in Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake, following up on the discovery of a large tooth on the banks of a lake in Siberia, an exhibition to discover its source is sent, but goes missing. Fearing the worst a Russian noble seeks out a monster hunter to find the lost exhibition.

INTO THE SNOWY FRONTIER

Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake opens with a picturesque view of a winter landscape dominated by a beautiful lake. Then, a person dressed in an old diver’s outfit crawls their way out of the waters, barely clinging to life. In England, Lady Mechanika meets with a Russian nobleman who explains the situation of how a friend of hers had gone missing while on an exhibition to find what is believed to be a living dinosaur living in a lake in Siberia. Lady Mechanika accepts the job, but before she leaves for Russia, she stops by her old partner’s house to apologize for past mistakes. In Russia, she meets her contact, a pair of royal guards, and their guide. The team splits up, with half taking a mechanized carriage snowmobile and the other half taking a sled pulled by reindeer. When the carriage breaks down, the team decides to set up camp. Lady Mechanika experiences some terrible dreams and is unable to sleep long. A noise draws some of the party’s attention, and they investigate. They discover a dead wolf that had been clawed to death. Lady Mechanika finds a wolf pup and decides to take it with her. The next day, the party begins the treacherous climb over the mountains.

STRAIGHTFORWARD ACTION ADVENTURE, WITH FEW SURPRISES

Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake #1 is an action/adventure story in the style of many old-school, pulpy comics of the past. It’s a story of a group of people testing their mettle against unrelenting forces of nature with a simple objective in mind. The way this comic is constructed is by the numbers: the party encounters an obstacle, they overcome the obstacle, the team then encounters a bigger obstacle, and they overcome it until things end on a cliffhanger. What’s odd about this is that the big appeal of Lady Mechanika comics is the steampunk element, which isn’t really a factor in this issue. With the exception of a couple of corsets, a pair of sunglasses, and a carriage with a tread, there isn’t much in the way of steampunk anything going on here. The story is perfectly fine on its own, but without the addition of the aesthetic that has been a hallmark of this title, there isn’t much to separate it from decades upon decades of stories of exhibitions into harsh landscapes. There are a couple of interesting wrinkles that look to be bigger story elements in the future, but here, they are barely a factor. Also, this issue takes a long time to really get going. It’s almost 15 pages before the adventure into the wilderness even begins, with most of those pages being dominated by very large chunks of text that only really serve to dole out details that have little importance as of right now.

WONDERFUL CHARACTER WORK

Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake #1 comes across as a situation where the artist is doing the best with what they’re given. While the character work is spectacular, from the facial expressions to the high level of detail in the clothing and outfits, there’s only so much that can be done with a snowy wilderness setting. After a while, this issue just isn’t very interesting to look at, mainly due to the lack of variation in the setting.

BOTTOM LINE: SOME SERIOUS PACING PROBLEMS, BUT OVERALL, A DECENT ADVENTURE

Lady Mechanika: The Devil In The Lake #1 should have a lot of things going for it. A strong focus on adventure and action, a visually interesting main character, and a universe that is full of fun steampunk contraptions and aesthetics. But this issue just doesn’t utilize any of these elements in an effective way, making this a bland read without much of anything to set it apart from others with similar plots. Plus, it meanders just a bit too long before getting into the meat of the story. 3 out of 5 stars.

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