DANGER GIRL: BODY SHOTS

Story: Andy Hartnell
Pencils: Nick Bradshaw w/Jonboy Meyers & Billy Dallas Patton
Digital Inks & Colors: Jim Charalampiois | Letters: Comicraft
Assistant Edits: Kristy Quinn | Edits: Scott Dunbier
Danger Girl Created By J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

Well, I'm not sure why the series is called BODY SHOTS. No one suffered a blow to the stomach or chest, and nobody drank liquor off of another person. But, misleading name aside, this is another fun outing from the same creative team that brought us BACK IN BLACK. The story is perhaps a bit overly complex and twisty, but the characterizations are fine, the action is exciting, and the artwork is excellent.

The premise this time is that a terrorist named Arthur Franco has acquired a gizmo called the Master Key, which will allow him to detonate any nuclear device on Earth from anyplace he happens to be. He demonstrates this ability to the world by setting off two such explosions. Franco's deranged end goal is to destroy all the world's nuclear weapons, ultimately making it a safer place (the environmental fallout from a planetful of nukes exploding is never mentioned by any character in the story). Abbey and Sydney, with aid from Agent Zero and support from Deuce and Valerie, must track Franco down before he can do any further damage.

Following a teaser sequence set in Japan, the action follows the girls briefly to Australia, where Sydney is buying a house, and then to Madagascar, Italy, and a nondescript location "somewhere in Africa", with the adventure culminating in the United States. Franco's scheme is revealed as a scam, though it turns out he was unaware. He believes the Master Key works, but in reality it's a non-functioning dummy device, while suicide bombers have detonated the missiles for him at the precise moments he has used the Key, as part of a manipulative plot by a corrupt U.S. General. Like I said -- a bit overly complex.

DANGER GIRL: BACK IN BLACK

Story: Andy Hartnell | Pencils: Nick Bradshaw
Digital Inks & Colors: Jim Charalampiois | Letters: Comicraft
Assistant Edits: Kristy Quinn | Edits: Scott Dunbier
Danger Girl Created By J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

Following a seven-issue series, a one-shot, a two-issue series, and three more one-shots (including the BATMAN/DANGER GIRL installment which I'm not covering in this project), all published roughly annually between the late nineties and 2004, DANGER GIRL returns in 2006, settling into the format which will become the standard for its continuing adventures: the four-issue limited series. This is also the first DANGER GIRL story in my review series (again excluding BATMAN) written by Andy Hartnell alone, with no credited plot input from series co-creator J. Scott Campbell. And Hartnell accomplishes himself nicely without the aid of his co-plotter.

The story finds Abbey and Sydney dispatched by Deuce to track down the Roadkillers, a motorcycle gang in South Dakota, to recover a stolen Sioux indian artifact called the Black Seed -- a skull dating back to the battle of Wounded Knee, believed to hold the power to resurrect the dead. The girls go undercover as motorcycle enthusiasts, befriending a "biker chick" named Ruby and enlisting the aid of her own gang, the Black Widows, in their mission. The girls learn that the Roadkillers have been hired by a mysterious cabal led by an elderly fellow calling himself "the Gentleman", who is also assisted by former Hammer Empire agents Kid Dynamo and Mr. Giggles. The quest eventually concludes in Boston, where the Black Seed is destroyed, but the Gentleman escapes.