The sultry pulp crime fighter returns in Moonstone's latest anthology, featuring stories that team-up the sexy Domino Lady with some of the greatest pulp heroes of yesterday. To date, I have enjoyed nearly all of Domino Lady books and comics that Moonstone publishing has had to offer. With adventures that take place in the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Domino Lady must confront crime without the aid of cell phones, computers, tasers, and all of the other technological gadgets that today's crime fighters have. Domino Lady must simply use her wits, her fighting skills, and her feminine wiles to defeat the bad guys - which makes for some really great reading!
Gentlemen Prefer Domino Lady offers up eight short stories in which Ellen Patrick dons her alter ego persona to fight the villainous mafia, saboteurs, killers, and other sundry bad guys alongside some of her contemporaries, such as the Black Bat, the Phantom Detective, the Green Ghost, Zero, Secret Agent X, Ravenwood, the Woman in Red, as well as "the ladies of pulp." Each tale, written by a different author, places Domino Lady in a set of circumstances where she either requires the aid or must assist one of these pulp heroes, and together they fight a common enemy. In some cases, the characters have teamed up with Domino Lady before (either in comic form or in prose form), and in those cases, readers get brief references to those prior tales. In other cases, Domino Lady is meeting the characters for the first time, although there are comments made that the heroes have heard of each other but never had an opportunity to meet. Regardless, the team-ups prove fortuitous for them and very unfortunate for the villains!
"Zeromino" was a bit more sci-fi than Domino Lady is used to, as the man she teams up with, Zero, has some very strange powers. The story was alright (fairly comic book-style in nature), but it was not one of my favorites. Zero is after a man who claims to have become immortal, and along the way, Domino Lady becomes embroiled in his mission. Through pure mishap, Zero's powers are transferred to Domino Lady, who must figure out how to use them and stop the villain of the story. I much prefer the more down-to-earth stories for Ellen Patrick to conquer, so this one missed the mark.
"Red-Handed" guest-stars the "Woman in Red." I am familiar with the writer of this story, Bobby Nash, who I actually met at DragonCon some years ago. I have enjoyed his other stories (both of Domino Lady and other characters), so I went in with high hopes on this one. I wasn't disappointed. Nash introduces readers to Peggy Allen, a police officer who never seems to garner the credit that her male counterparts do. However, when she dons the red outfit, she fights crime in a way the police force won't allow her to. She and Domino Lady are a force to be reckoned with in this story, When an informant of Domino Lady turns up dead, and Allen and her partner are investigating the death, it turns to Domino Lady and the Woman in Red to track down and ultimately capture the criminal mastermind behind the death.
"My Date with Domino" is a fun little story where Secret Agent X and his assistant, Betty Dale, cross paths with Domino Lady while investigating a cache of weapons that could cause more than their fare share of destruction. The trio must somehow destroy all of the weapons before the criminal gang they are hunting cause the disastrous "C-Day" event! The banter in this story is a lot of fun and definitely made me smile as I read it.
"Blind Date" (another "date"?) features the team-up of Domino Lady and Ravenwood. I have heard of Ravenwood before (I actually have a book that collects all of his tales), but I haven't read any of his adventures as of yet. So, this story was a nice introduction to the character for me. The two pulp heroes are after the same man, but for entirely different reasons, The story alternates perspectives between Domino Lady and Ravenwood, so the reader not only gets to follow both characters are their separate tasks, but also allows the reader to become better acquainted with both characters throughout the course of the story.
"Kill the Lady Goodbye" takes Ellen Patrick and her date, David King, to New York, here King's father is missing and he must take control of his father's family business - a well-known carnival. At the same time, the Black Bat is on the trail of a big-time crime boss, who seems to have taken over the King Carnival. Needless to say, the paths of Domino Lady and the Black Bat cross, and with these two acting in concert, it's only a matter of time before the criminal element is wiped out of the carnival (with a surprise twist relating to an inside job at the carnival!).
"Dame Sinistre" gives the spotlight to the Green Ghost, as he must rescue a good friend's daughter who has been kidnapped as part of a supernatural experiment to draw an evil entity known as Leonox into this world. His alter ego happens to be on a date with Ellen Patrick when the drama begins, so it goes without saying that Domino Lady gets dragged into the mix. The story is completely told from the Green Ghost's point of view, and Domino Lady is simply along for the ride (and nearly gets sucked into the ritual sacrifice designed to bring Leonox into this world!). It's an okay story, but again, the strong supernatural side of things just doesn't really fit with my idea of Domino Lady.
"Call in the Stuntman" is the final offering in this anthology, and it guest-stars the Phantom Detective. In this story, Domino Lady has found the evidence that will exonerate a well-known and beloved actor that she knows to be innocent of the crime for which he is being tried (being a spy for the Nazis!). But on the very day the evidence is to be revealed that will prove his innocence, a costumed pirate swoops in and slices the actor's throat open, killing him! Domino Lady is determined to bring the culprit to justice, as is the Phantom Detective, who happened to be on the scene when the murder took place. Together, they track down the criminal known as "the Stuntman" to a studio where, in a truly theatrical battle, he appears in the Phantom Detective's own costume, resulting in a battle between the two "Phantoms," leaving Domino Lady to figure out which one is which! I did enjoy this tale, which involved more detective work and felt very much like an episode of a television show in book form.
The editors of this anthology, David Boop and Kim Perisin, chose well with their bookend tales - the first and last stories are definitely the two best ones in the book. None of the ones in-between are bad, but some are definitely better than others. The one thing I was disappointed in, however, is the amount of spelling errors throughout the stories. With two editors, I would have expected little to no misspellings; yet, there are enough errors that after a while, it became a glaring defect in the book and took me out of the story. It just confirms my belief that "editors" in today's book market are more about marketing then actual editing of the books. Otherwise, fans of pulp characters and Domino Lady in particular should enjoy this anthology for what it is.
RATING: 8 posh French restaurants on the Sunset Strip out of 10 for giving readers eight prime examples of why gentlemen really do prefer Domino Lady!
No comments:
Post a Comment