La Muerta: Retaliation #1 (Chapter 6) is a comic written by Mike MacLean, illustrated by Joel Gomez, and colored by Ceci de la Cruz. La Muerta is being hunted by criminal gangs, the police, and people from her past. This is a supernatural superheroine comic with gritty bloody violence, haunting drama, and a sizable cast of characters. The leading lady here is Maria Diaz/La Muerta, she as an ex-Army medic who served as a sort of emissary for Santa Muerte. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and with firearms. Derek King is a police detective who used to be in a relationship with Maria but him disagreeing with her choice to stay a vigilante pushed them apart. Loco is the large, armored leader of a group of crimefighters. Sombra is a witch who is responsible for a number of problems that used to and currently plague the city. This story begins with the shocking appearance of Faustino and the first thing he does is shoot at Mama Z as she stands with Senator Hernandez on stage. As the crowd panics and flees Maria tries to get Faustino to safety but Mama Z’s security starts firing; this forces her to get physical. The violence here is brutal and bloody with gruesomeness leading to significant gore. The pacing is steady overall with some fast and slow sections. The tone is like that of a gritty action-thriller dripping in Mexican culture. There are dramatically and violently intense moments as the stakes here are high. The dialogue is mainly conversational with Spanish is mixed in and some thought narration from Maria. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting and violent issue that sees our heroine beset on all sides with few allies as she tries to fight for justice and her own survival.
The art here is drawn in a slightly smoothly detailed gritty modern style with heavy shading and choice lighting. The color palette here is realistic with a lot of darker tones; red and black are the most prominent hues here. For natural scenery we have a park with a pathway between trees and Sombra’s house has the standard lawn with greenery one would expect. The locations go from outdoors and in public to darker, closed off areas like empty skyscrapers and alley ways. The backgrounds are consistently showing the actual surroundings which makes everything seem a bit more alive. The expression level here is around average as there are many characters outside of the mains who give off strong reactions. Emotions we’ll see include shock, anger, rage, sinister happiness, sadness, and some confusion. The faces have a decent to good amount of detail with just about every expression being easy to decipher. Violence mainly involves firearms with physicality being a close second but there are also explosions, fires, and blades. There are many gruesome attacks here, buckets of blood, and a significant amount of gore. There are many lengthy action scenes with constantly shifting angles, a good panel count, and an overall smooth flow.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural superheroine stories that stars a Mexican woman and has a large cast of Mexican characters and that features heavy gritty violence, haunting drama, and fugitive vibes then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“No…can’t let the darkness claim me yet.”
Physical Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/la-muerta-comics/products/la-muerta-retaliation-premiere-edition
Digital Link: https://coffincomicsshop.com/collections/coffinverse-digital-editions/products/la-muerta-retaliation-digital-copy
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brianpulido/b-pulidos-newest-graphic-novel-la-mureta-1-retaliation/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 46
Violent Pages: 28, for 61% 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.”
