Lady Killer 2 Issue #3
Dark Horse Comics

Story and art by Joëlle Jones
Colours by Michelle Madsen
Letters by: Crank!

You know, for being such a tough, strong, quick-witted lady, Josie can be a bit dim at times. Frustratingly so.

The whole thing about “following your gut”? Well, it’s a good thing she just flat-out ignored her gut feeling. For a series about a housewife/hitwoman, this issue was a particularly dark one for Lady Killer.

Josie is rather happy with her decision to turn down “the union” and stick with her long-time friend, Irving. While their clientele isn’t exactly high-end, they are making a name for themselves as a pair. But of course, things are about to go very wrong.

When Josie has “Uncle Irving” over for supper one night, Mother Schuller begins to freak out. The woman chucks Christmas ornaments as the man and threatens him with a meat cleaver. Not exactly the poster child for hospitality.

Understandably, Josie is pretty confused by the volatile response from her mother-in-law. So Josie sends Irving out with her husband while while she and Mother Schuller work things out. Her husband (increasingly tired-looking throughout the Florida issues) tells Irving about how he can’t manage his new job and boss anymore as he is beginning to shoulder more work than he can possible handle.

Mother Schuller promises to tell Josie the story behind her actions, as long as she just makes Irving leave. So Josie obediently sends Irving away and prepares to hear what is truly an appalling truth behind her partner’s previous life.

Mother Schuller was a civil service officer for the Nazi party in Germany during the war. She wasn’t high ranking, but was often assigned to investigate someone. One special case was a doctor who was believed to be running a fraudulent escape network, getting people out of Germany and into America.

But of course, Irving’s true intentions are much more sinister, as Schuller finds out. Irving had been tricking people into giving them their money for “safe passage” – but was giving them inoculations of cyanide instead.

Immediately, Josie tries to rid herself of Irving. She arranges a meeting with Mr Hawley from the union. She thinks it would be great to have someone larger looking over Irving, but Hawley immediately rejects her offer as they aren’t exactly members of the Irving Reinhardt fan club either. So he rescinds his previous offer.

Irving has Josie in a bad spot, which only gets more problematic when she returns home and finds her husband’s boss in their ice chest.

Issue #3 was dramatic, and way dark. I do love where Jones is taking the story by building up the suspense little by little. Over the seven issues of Lady Killer, you grow quite fond of Josie and all of her flaws. It will be plenty interesting seeing how she tries to get herself out of this mess.

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Why yes this comic did come out on the 16th. But life gets busy and some weeks a girl just doesn’t give a damn.