Getting Weird And Wonderful With Death’s Enchanter — Reviewing ‘Lady Baltimore: The Daughters Of Medusa’ #2

Welcome to the table,

The strange and wonderful world of Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden‘s Lady Baltimore continues along its weird and wonderful two-issue story focused on one of history’s most iconic entities, Medusa. Let’s get into it.

Bridgit Connell‘s art dances across the pages as the words of Mignola and Golden play out in the second instalment of this two-issue story arc. We find Sofia and her crew in the court of The Medusa herself. The female members of Sofia’s team are granted an audience with Medusa and subject themselves to the bites of her snakes to prove their loyalty to her cause.

<<<SPOILERS FOLLOW>>>

The female members of the team, along with two of the Gorgans hop into a plane and head to Germany where a bunch vile nazis have a young gorgon named Samira locked up as part of a larger plan to use gorgons to serve the nazis foul machinations.

We learn that The Medusa, who leads and rules over all the gorgons, is close to the end of her life cycle. When she passes, the young gorgon Samira will magically inherit her title, name, and be infused with her power, making her the leader of all living gorgons. This is a heck of a cool plot device because while there numbers are very small an influx of even a handful of gorgons could turn the tides of war and give the nazis victory.

Sofia and the team take a car to the nazi’s stronghold. They begin an assault against the forces there, making fairly quick work of the armed troops who make up the outer guard. Inside, we find Samira going through a slight transformation as the old queen dies and the new one comes into her power. Samira makes quick work of the men but ends up grabbing a handgun and engaging in a firefight with female agents.

I really like the story developing with Samira, more than even what is going on with the main cast as the issue draws to a close. There is some conflict between the gorgon agents and Sofia over killing humans as collateral damage, and Sofia sticks to her guns, causing a fight to break out in the ranks for a few panels.

Samira shows her fangs after pumping herself up. After running out of ammo goes full snakes and claws on one of the nazi agents brutally making short work of her. Some delightful bits of dialogue really set a tone and give some depth to a character that could have, in less skilled storytelling hands, served as little more than a plot device. I find myself wanting more stories about Samira, even if they have to transition into the prose world, though comics would be really nice as well.

Until next time, I wonder how long it will be until we get the next Lady Baltimore story? Only time will tell!