Robyn Hood: Baba Yaga #1 // Review
A powerful magic-wielding witch has taken an interest in an ancient dagger that is on display at the New York Museum of Natural History. Manhattan’s preeminent green hooded defender doesn’t know why, but she’s about to get a few clues in Robyn Hood: Baba Yaga #1. Writer Joe Brusha gives one of Zenescope’s most popular heroes a solidly-executed supernatural action conflict to sink her teeth into. Artist Renato Rei captures the action for the page in visual renderings that are imbued with depth by colorist Juan Manuel Rodriguez. Brusha, Rei, and company aren’t trying anything too challenging in the story of a magical dagger, but they ARE delivering a thoroughly enjoyable supernatural action story.
Robyn’s dealt with a lot over the years. Art thieves should be no problem. Green art thieves with bat wings and six glowing eyes, though? THAT is a kind of gruesome Robyn doesn’t normally deal with. As it turns out, they are after a dagger that is of some significance to those who worship Cthulhu. Evidently, Lovecraft wasn’t just writing fiction. Baba Yaga wants the dagger, and she’s willing to threaten the lives of the innocent to get what she wants. Robyn isn’t going to let that happen. Thwarting the threat will involve risking her life high over one of the largest cities on Earth.
Brusha finds perfect pacing for a simple supernatural story. A simple introduction at the museum leads to Robyn’s encounter with the creatures on a clear Manhattan night covered in a blanket of stars. Robyn makes an intriguing decision, which leads to the first big showdown of the series. It all fits together so well for a simple action issue featuring an appealingly bad-assed lead who eagerly risks her own life to save the lives of others. Sometimes it’s the simplest superhero stories that make for the most entertaining. Robyn hunts monsters in the interest of saving the world, and she looks good doing it. There doesn’t need to be anything more going on.
Rei and Rodriguez fill the fight sequences with a highly kinetic sense of action. They manage to find more than one heroic pose with bow and arrow in addition to some appealingly acrobatic melee between heroine and monsters. Rodriguez’s work with radiance gives the action a deeply atmospheric dynamic. The crystal clear skies above Manhattan coat the sky in a million stars as elsewhere the red, gleaming eyes of the monsters regard Robyn with blankly sinister stares. The nature of the action finds Robyn pursuing the beast in a helicopter, allowing for some pretty dramatic perspectives that Rei and Rodriguez make the most of.
Robyn has been around for long enough to become respectably iconic to those who love indie action comics. Brusha and company deliver a fun, engrossing action journey to open Robyn’s latest adventure. There’s nothing terribly deep happening in the issue, but it’s just really enjoyable to hang out with Robyn as she tumbles through a bit more action.
