La Muerta: Onslaught #1 (Chapter 7) is a comic written by Mike MacLean, illustrated by Joel Gomez, and colored by Ceci de la Cruz. A new otherworldly threat appears and they have their sights set on La Muerta. This is a supernatural superheroine comic with heavy, gruesome violence, demonic creatures, and large-scale battles. The leading lady here is La Muerta/Maria Diaz, she is an ex-Army medic and a skilled fighter who serves as the champion/advocate of Santa Muerte. The main man is Loco, he is a large armored man who hunts down criminals with Riza the tech genius and Alfredo who has a bunch of different jobs and skills. Faustino is a former cartel hitman who has helped Maria many times in the past. This story begins at the closed down Mexican-themed amusement park that Loco and his crew have turned into their very secure hideout. Outside of the gates are the Espada Brothers with Sombra in tow, they want revenge on La Muerta for the reducing their ranks in the past. Unfortunately for them their sneaking is on full display and Riza has many countermeasures in place for an invasion. The violence here is very gruesome with blood everywhere along with some gore. The pacing is steady overall with the combat scenes moving a bit faster. The tone is gritty and war-like with heavy action-thriller vibes. This is violently intense almost the entire time. The dialogue is mainly conversational with some thought narration from Maria/La Muerta. The talking style is aggressive and has some Spanish added in. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an intensely violent issue that deviates a bit from previous installments but still has that thrilling combat La Muerta and her friends are known for dishing out along with an intriguing story.
The art here is drawn in a somewhat smoothly detailed modern style reminiscent of comics from the 80’s/90’s with heavy shading. The color palette features a lot dark tones from black to blue with a consistent smattering of red. As this takes place entirely in a rundown amusement park there isn’t any natural scenery. There is a hidden base that Loco and his crew operate out of but most of this story takes place outside of it. Some of the rides we’ll see are: a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and plenty of booths. The backgrounds do a very good job of showing the actual surroundings but on occasion it’ll be a cloudy gradient color. The expression level here is around average as we get a bit more hard and unflinching looks as we do reactions. Prominent emotions shown are: fear, shock, anger, confusion, sadness, and irritation/annoyance. The faces have detail ranging from decent to good with most expressions being clear. Mystical effects here tend to have a blueish-white shine. The violence is delivered with firearms, bombs, brutal physicality, and other weapons. There are many gruesome attacks, heavy horror-like gore, and large amount of blood. There is really just one long action scene with lulls and breaks in-between sequences. They have a generally smooth flow and large-scale battles.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural superheroine stories that star a Mexican woman and other Hispanics with heavy gruesome violence and demonic creatures 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?”
“They pay for the lack of discipline with their lives.”
Physical Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/la-muerta-comics/products/la-muerta-onslaught-premiere-edition
Digital Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/coffinverse-digital-editions/products/la-muerta-onslaught-digital-copy
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brianpulido/b-pulidos-newest-graphic-novel-la-muerta-1-onslaught/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 46
Violent Pages: 31, for 67% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 5
“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 – 5
“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 – 4
“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 – 1
“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.”
