Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1 – Greg Rucka, Writer; Nicola Scott, Artist; Annette Kwok, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: It’s been a while since Greg Rucka dropped a new project at DC, but right now it seems like every all-star who made their name here is coming back with something new to say – but this dark heist comedy is definitely a twist on Rucka’s usual fare. This story focuses on two of DC’s most infamous female villains – or antiheroes, depending on the story. Cheetah had a bit of a redemption arc in Tom King’s Wonder Woman, but she’s still struggling with her unnatural hungers. As the issue opens, she eats a corpse at a morgue and then nearly tears apart a random young man before fighting back and vanishing. Cheshire, meanwhile, has no such scruples. She’s busy testing a new poison that makes people explode before heading off to her latest gig – assassinating a corrupt businessman. She even gives the henchmen a chance to walk away alive, because she’s only here for the big man.
She’s a professional, while Cheetah is the more emotional and passionate of the two, so their carnage-filled team-up here is a lot of fun. They casually get dinner after finishing the job, compare notes on their personal lives, and then Cheetah proposes the heist of a lifetime – robbing the Justice League watchtower for something called the Power Bank – an artifact that contains backups of every single power belonging to a member of the League. This is obviously one of the most valuable things in the world, and Cheshire is skeptical to put it lightly – but Cheetah knows exactly how to correctly pinpoint her insecurities and give her a way to rise above them and reach a new level of wealth and power. This first issue only gets us to the title, essentially, but it doesn’t matter – between Rucka’s clever writing and Scott’s gorgeous, all-too-vivid art, these two already have me hooked into their mad scheme.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
