Welcome to Triumph City, a city plagued by corruption and crime, where every alleyway and dark corner holds a deadly secret. The lone figure, standing against the onslaught of crime, is a savvy crimefighter known as the Lynx – sworn to protect the city that forged her.
By day, she’s Claudia Calla, a quiet secretary at Triumph City’s biggest paper. A woman haunted by a dark tragedy that has pushed her toward taking on the mantle of the Lynx – to prevent others from experiencing the same pain she’s dealt with. But when a specter from her earliest days returns, asking for her help against a cabal of dark forces, the Lynx must choose between her heroic responsibilities and her debt to a dear friend.
The Legendary Lynx by Alex Segura and Sandy Jarrell was published November 12, 2024, by Mad Cave Comics.
The concept behind this collected four-issue mini-series is an interesting one. Two of Segura's novels - 2022's Secret Identity and 2024's Alter-Ego - center around the comic industry of the 1970's and a woman who had created a character called the Lynx for a fictional company called Triumph Comics. Within those novels were occasional pages from the comic book starring this character. Segura decided to go a step further and actually create a tie-in comic book, which is where we find ourselves with this series.
The story is presented as if these were actual issues published in the 1970's by Triumph Comics, right down to the mocked-up covers and even a reference or two to other "published" books in the company's line. For me (someone who was discovering super-hero comics as a kid of the 70's), this has the exact feel of the Bronze Age of comics. The pacing and the artwork by Jarrell with the colors by Grey Allison brings back that era quite well. It is non-stop action and adventure with plenty of mystery and a splash of supernatural to boot. The character designs are solid; I could easily see them fitting in with any of the DC or Marvel books I read back when I was ten years old.
If I had a complaint, it is that the story tends to jump around a bit. We get four issues in a row, but there are a lot of characters who come and go rather quickly. While there is some overlapping and a general flow, it does get a little muddled. Then again, if it was meant to mirror the comics of that time period, then I could say this is actually more of a feature and less a bug. Since Triumph Comics, as described in the novels, tended to be a lower-tier publisher who was working hard and trying to find something that would stick and be their big break, having a storyline that jumped around a bit would very much likely have actually been something they would have thrown together.
As a tie-in to the novels, this is definitely something to be checked out - especially if you enjoyed those novels like I did. On its own, it is fun to look at but don't expect it to make a ton of sense.
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