Review: Scarlett Couture #1
Scarlett Couture – Issue #1 Project Startdust, Part 1 of 4
Her name is Scarlett Carver. She is the daughter of a fashion mogul. She works for an undisclosed branch of the CIA. And she has a very special set of skills….
A big, bald bad guy is torturing a pretty brunette. He wants to know who Valerie Rosario works for because Valerie Rosario has stolen his client’s data. The girl cries and denies any and all knowledge. Big Baldy doesn’t believe her but if she tells him what he wants to know, he’ll be merciful before he kills her.
So, who is this pretty dame in need of rescue? A news flash tells us she is one of two models abducted in Las Vegas the previous night. And their kidnapping could be connected to Valarie Rosario’s disappearance. Rosario was to appear at The Chase Couture fashion show in LA. Chase Carver says she has been assured the police are doing their best to investigate. Scarlett, her daughter and head of security, is assisting in the search.
Backstage, a man named Spencer is yelling on the phone. He tells Scarlett not to proceed without backup. Scarlett, predictably, does not listen.
Our feisty heroine is in New York. We find out she is not JUST head of security at her mama’s fashion house. She and Valerie Rosario also work for a special branch of the CIA. Rosario told her where kidnapped girls were being kept and she’s already in the facility kicking ass and forgetting names. She doesn’t need backup. A camera and her phone let her know three men are coming for her.
Oh yeah, Scarlett has already found the other model abducted in Las Vegas. She is gagged and bound in a corner, but Scarlett doesn’t have time to get her out of there. She’ll have to fight. But luckily for the damsel in distress, Scarlett was kidnapped and held hostage when she was a teenager. She dealt with the trauma by learning to fight . She takes out two of the bad guys with her super kung-fu moves. She hears a Mac-10 submachine gun being readied and knows she needs to get moving.
So, who is this pretty dame in need of rescue? A news flash tells us she is one of two models abducted in Las Vegas the previous night. And their kidnapping could be connected to Valarie Rosario’s disappearance. Rosario was to appear at The Chase Couture fashion show in LA. Chase Carver says she has been assured the police are doing their best to investigate. Scarlett, her daughter and head of security, is assisting in the search.
Backstage, a man named Spencer is yelling on the phone. He tells Scarlett not to proceed without backup. Scarlett, predictably, does not listen.
Our feisty heroine is in New York. We find out she is not JUST head of security at her mama’s fashion house. She and Valerie Rosario also work for a special branch of the CIA. Rosario told her where kidnapped girls were being kept and she’s already in the facility kicking ass and forgetting names. She doesn’t need backup. A camera and her phone let her know three men are coming for her.
Oh yeah, Scarlett has already found the other model abducted in Las Vegas. She is gagged and bound in a corner, but Scarlett doesn’t have time to get her out of there. She’ll have to fight. But luckily for the damsel in distress, Scarlett was kidnapped and held hostage when she was a teenager. She dealt with the trauma by learning to fight . She takes out two of the bad guys with her super kung-fu moves. She hears a Mac-10 submachine gun being readied and knows she needs to get moving.
She finds the other model. Strapped to the unconscious (dead?) model is a ticking bomb. Scarlett runs and crashes out a seemingly upper floor window before the bomb goes off. She goes home to change her designer panties, wondering what models have to do with armed goons and explosives.
The CEO of Armawood PMC, Clinton Baines is yapping on the phone from his Upper East Side office. He has no idea what happened, but at least the evidence has been destroyed. The cops have one of the kidnapped models in custody, but his man “took care” of Valerie Rosario. They still don’t know who she’s working for.
On the other end of the line is dashing Casino Mogul, Dante Ramon. He doesn’t think the splashy killing of model was wise. He reminds Baines that he invested a half a billion dollars into their venture. Baines reminds Ramon that he is the weapons and security provider and that Ramon is responsible for Valerie getting involved in the first place.
Ramon has an inside man in the shape of Secret Service Agent Walker. Walker tells Ramon and Ramon’s Head of Security Fayed there is only so much he can do. If the Secretary of Defense will be attending the Security Conference. The Security Conference Ramon plans to attack, everyone will be on high alert. Fayed says this is why they planned the diversion in New York. The cops attention will be investigating that case and pay less attention to the Security Conference.
Ramon is still in the dark about who their backer is and Baines assures him that anonymity is important. They make arrangements to silence the model in police custody before she talks.
Baines turns to a video conference with a red-haired man. He asks Mr. Klass for the ok to proceed. Mr. Klass says to tie up loose ends so they can proceed to the next phase of Project Stardust.
Once the plan is complete, he can control the worlds’ governments and bring down Chase Carver and her empire. Then no one can stop him. Not even his sister…Scarlett Couture (Uh, I thought her last name was Carver?).
Thoughts
- With a title like Scarlett Couture, I was hoping for some good, campy fun. Unfortunately, this comic seems to take itself too seriously, employ predictable, trite storylines and one-dimensional characters. Maybe the camp and self-referential humor was intended and will become more apparent as the series goes on?
- The dialogue and the thought balloons are clunky. Maybe I’m not the target audience, but I’m not interested in hearing Scarlett name the types of guns her assailants are using. Nor am I here for the Big Bads spouting “As you know” exposition at each other.
- The twist at the end of this issue fell flat. As soon as I saw the red hair, I figured the anonymous backer was related to Scarlett. His motivation to take over the worlds’ governments was typical enough, but it’s too much that he also has mommy issues (and sister issues?).
- I did like the art. This was well penciled and inked. The characters are mostly all classically gorgeous (and those who aren’t, are the standard villainous schlubs), but I don’t mind spending thirty odd pages looking at pretty pictures.
- I read this issue again without reading any of the words and it was much better. I could basically get the story straight from the pictures. This says a lot for the art and not anything for the writing, which is exactly how I felt.
