La Muerta: Ascension #1 (Chapter 5) is a comic written by Mike MacLean, illustrated by Joel Gomez, and colored by Ceci de la Cruz. La Muerta is forced to go on the run when an old enemy reappears. This is a gritty supernatural superheroine comic with dramatic elements, heavy violence, and noir vibes. The leading lady here is La Muerta/Maria Diaz, after doing the bidding of Santa Muerte she now finds herself unable to hear their voice. She’s been losing sleep and she spends her time training. The main man here is Loco; he’s a tall, large, and armored masked man who has a whole crimefighting operation with his associates Riza and Alfredo. Derek King is a detective and the former “boyfriend” of Maria. This story begins with Maria driving a motorcycle to a rundown, Mexican-themed amusement park in the middle of the night. After a quick chat they head inside, he reintroduces her to the crew, and then they begin to spar. When the fight concludes Loco offers Maria an opportunity to go hunting tomorrow; he believes that she needs a mission. The violence here is very bloody with gruesomeness and gore. The pacing here is steady with a gritty noir-like action-thriller tone. There are many violent and dangerously intense moments here as well as a few dramatic ones. The dialogue is mainly conversation with a decent bit of narration from Maria and frequent interjections of Spanish. There is decent back-and-forth and a lot of aggression. No word-heavy pages here. This is a violent and intriguing issue where our heroine must deal with intense present danger along with a dreaded foe from the past.
The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style with slight smoothness and heavy shading and pointed lighting. The color palette is dark in tone with plenty blacks, reds, and grayish-blues. Aside from the rare tree there isn’t much in the way of natural scenery. Due to the events that transpire there isn’t a singular location as these characters will visit an amusement park, alleyways, clubs, and a few other secluded places. The backgrounds pretty much always show the actual surroundings which can add a bit more weight to the different moments. The expression level here is on the lower side as these characters like to obscure their faces and maintain a hard look. Some of the emotions we’ll see include anger, shock, fear, and rare happiness. The faces have a average to good amount of detail with changing expressions usually being clear. Violence is mainly delivered physically or with firearms but on occasion more surprising methods are used. This is very bloody and there are gruesome moments that lead to gore. The action scenes are lengthy overall with a good flow and they change angles frequently.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural superheroine stories with grit that star a Mexican woman and a man with a crimefighting crew as well as some crime drama, heavy bloody violence, and noir vibes then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“She’s new at this. Still has mercy in her vocabulary.”
Physical Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/la-muerta-comics/products/la-muerta-ascension-kickstarter-edition
Digital Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/coffinverse-digital-editions/products/la-muerta-ascension-digital-copy
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brianpulido/b-pulidos-newest-graphic-novel-la-muerta-1-ascensi/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 44
Violent Pages: 16, for 36% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 1, for 2% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 4
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 3
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 2
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
