Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Eve Stranger black crown, idw

Eve Stranger- A Review of the Mystery Woman and Her Memory Loss

Published Thu, 09 May 2019 15:30:22 -0500

There's a mystery surrounding Eve Stranger and not even she knows why. Suffering from damage to her short term memory, the spunky lavender-haired outcast must go about her day slowly piecing together the pieces of her identity. David Barnett (The Death of Jenny Everywhere) weaves together the life of Eve Stranger, meticulously building on the mystery of the titular character and expanding the subculture organizations who are after this not-just-a-human woman.

Memento meets Lucy in the latest release from IDW's Black Crown Imprint, as we follow Eve on various stops throughout the city and slowly learning what exactly it is that makes her so different. She wakes up in a room with no memory surrounded by a mess containing a gun, a credit card with no limit, and her purple stuffed bear. The narrator of this story lays out the do's-and-don'ts to keep Eve alive and out of trouble; reminding her that she never orders room service and under no circumstances let anyone take your blood. Not exactly privy to thoughts that aren't her own, we watch her do the exact wrong things while nefarious players in the story make moves to track her down. One man takes a pill with the name E.V.E. stamped on the side which plugs him into a network of information which quickly explodes him as soon as he tries to reveal the information he hears inside his head. Another stranger calls in Eve's location to a blonde woman, who encourages him to keep a close eye on her while simultaneously auctioning Eve off to a group of suits, starting the price at a cool 10 million.

Barnett does well to layer in social commentary, with Eve passing by a women's rights protest and ironically donating money in solidarity to the cause while a room of men place bids on her controlling her body. Philip Bond (Time Flies) puts together a well-worked issue with the art, his style is clean and merries well with colorist Eva De La Cruz's (House of Mystery) softer color palette.

While there wasn't too much to the first issue of Eve Stranger to make it immediately stand out, this would be a good choice for comics fans who are tired of regular hero storylines and want to try something new with a millennial lead. There is enough interest to see what Eve is capable of to make reading further into the series a worthwhile effort. Although I am unsure if I would recommend this as a gainful addition to a hold box, there is potential for Barnett making it all come together for a bigger payoff in future issues. Definitely keep an eye out for issue #2, expected to release at the end of May 2019 for IDW's Black Crown Imprint.

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