Staff Picks (April): La Muerta — Descent #1

Southwestern City, USA. A combat veteran has returned home from the Middle East to find her city and her family tangled in the vicious machinations of kill-crazed cult of drug dealers. Drawing heavily on Hispanic-American Catholicism and culture, Brian Pulido’s new femme fatale series mixes fantasy elements a la The Crow with a grindhouse aesthetic worthy of Tarantino. 

This title follows in the tradition of many great stories, from the Greek classics to the nineties’ comics’ favorites: a trained fighter returns home to find loved ones beset by evil forces and takes vengeance for the wrongs done in their absence. Whether we’re talking about Odysseus or Spawn, it’s a great theme rich with possibilities and Pulido and his team dig right into it.  In the first issue alone, we see the parallels between the Afghan desert where Maria served and the deserts of the southwest US where she will serve a higher power. We see the links between the US war against Terror and La Muerta’s own war against the drug dealing cult that holds her city in thrall. Repeated visual allusions are made via lighting, statuary, and symbols to La Muerta’s holy duty—her divine charge—to bring the villains to justice. This is more than one ex-soldier’s obsession and anger, this is crusade.

—Sarah Martinez

Publisher: Coffin Comics Item Code: APR161491 Release Date: 06/29/16 SRP: $7.99