- Title: Amber Blake #1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Jade Lagardère
- Artist: Jackson Butch Guice
Amber Blake #1 brings the French comic from writer and Jade Lagardère artist Jackson Butch Guice to American audiences. The stuff of pulp fiction, the comic jumps around quite a bit introducing us to the title character as we go from her being dropped off at an orphanage to her enrollment in a prestigious school through her graduation to the awful night that ends that relationship.
With pacing issues and a story that glosses over large chunks of the character, we really only get snippets of who Amber is up until the night when her girlfriend is attacked by the school’s predatory head. An attempt at exposing the truth leads to murder and a new job offer for Amber from a secret organization specializing it going after targets like the one that just slipped through her fingers.
The entire issue is prelude to who and what Amber Blake may become. There’s a kernel of a good (but hardly original) idea, but without at least a tease about where the tragic events may lead her, the first issue feels hollow. Pass.
[IDW, $3.99]