Switchblade Stories #7 is a comic written and drawn by Chris Askham. The Scarlet Sister’s investigation leads her to women in danger! This is a supernatural superheroine comic with strong noir vibes that gets violent and features some lesbian romance. The leading lady for this tale is The Scarlet Sister, real name Amy. She has been granted abilities by Aphrodite and she uses them to help women. This story begins with dirty cops making a shady deal with some gangster types under the cover of night. The Scarlet Sister watches these crimes being committed as she stands on a rooftop and she immediately jumps into action. While previous issues in this series focused on Mindy Lou and Darla May, this issue seems to be the start of a whole new, unrelated storyline. This takes in an unspecified time but it seems to be around the 1950’s. The violence is mainly physical with some blood and a gruesome moment. The pacing here is steady and the tone is like that of a much more adult version of Adam West’s Batman without the comedy. There are intense moments brought about by drama, violence, and romance. The dialogue is delivered like something you’d hear in a classic black-and-white movie and there is noir-style narration from The Scarlet Sister. There are at least a couple of pages that get close to and might actually be word-heavy. This is the continuation of an exciting series but in this installment we get a new lead character, a dramatic plot, and bloody violence.

            The art here is drawn in a classic style with a pulpy look to it like something from the Golden Age of Comics with strong lighting and shading. The color palette is as wide as it would have been then along with the actual pages having stains and wrinkles. While we do get a quick look at some rocks and the water of the Mediterranean Sea most of this story takes place indoors and around the downtown area of this city. The main location is a seemingly abandoned factory but there are scenes on a rooftop and in a convent. The backgrounds usually show the immediate surroundings but on occasion it’ll be a gradient or solid color. The expression level here is a bit below average and we do get a decent variation of looks from panel-to-panel. The emotional range primarily consists of anger, happiness, lust, longing, and shock. The faces have an overall decent amount of detail but can seem stiff on occasion but the expression they give should be clear most of the time. There is some face sameness here but you shouldn’t confuse any characters. The weapons of choice are hands and feet with foreign objects sometimes getting involved. The violence is a bloodier and more brutal version of what you might see on classic 1960’s superhero shows. The action scenes come in bursts and they purposeful jagged flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural superheroine comics with a main cast of women and a noir perspective with violence and lesbian romance then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, sexual situations, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“You petty male mortals will feel the judgment of The Scarlet Sister!”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/switchbladestories/switchblade-stories-issues-1-to-7/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 5, for 21% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 4, for 17% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“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 – 3

“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 – 2

“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 – 4

“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.”