Gold Digger 05

Gold Digger 05 

Summary : Jetta is back. 

Did we miss her ?

No ?  Oh alright then.

And she  laments that she has become soft  and lazy  in  paradise, as she puts her son down to  train. 

However  her son is  kidnapped by Cheetah  who escapes with the  mewling mutt, through  a  teleportation portal, which stays conspicuously open. 

...Hmm.

Off course this isn't Brittany, but Tanya masquerading as Brittany. Setting her plans in  motion, knowing that Jetta in her rage will follow. 

The next  part of her plan is to lure Brittany away  from Strype  and teleports Brittany  to  the catacombs of the palace, right in the  path of Jetta.

Who is off course in no mood to talk, or listen for that  matter. 

While Brittany and Jetta  work over their grievances. 

Tanya  masquerading as  Brittany  has a few choice words to sabotage Strype and Brittany's relationship.

Unfortunately for her, she has  counted outside of  Dr Diggers presence who can see through her disguise. 

And gets a bead on Brittany in the catacombs. 

He materialises  in between Jetta and Brittany and Jetta  kills him with out a second thought.

This enrages  Brittany  to the point that Jetta is no match for her anymore  and Tanya is forced to bring Thabian, Jetta's husband in. 

Who is more then match  for Brittany, but is also more level headed then Jetta and  concludes that Brittany did not  abduct their son.

Jetta is in no mood to listen.   

As Jetta wants to finish Brittany off, Dr Diggers interferes, being not  quite as dead as previously thought. 

Credits :

Writer artist Fred Perry

Editor : Doug Dlin 

And you can read along with this link.

Best way to read it, is to download Comic_rack

And install Ghostscript

But Adobe Reader works fine too

Notes : Released on 1 November  1993

This is nominally issue 9, if  the mini  is  included.

Second appearance of Pojo.

Review  :

Like Gina  before her, this time  Brittany gets the spotlight. 

But is it  just as good  ?

Almost, but no quite.

Well no, that's not entirely true. It's a perfectly  fine issue. It's just Tanya's  motivation that  let  it down. 

Her motivation is both cliché and one dimensional  and not befitting the rather serious  tone of issue  5.

Because  it is serious, the  poor motivation of the main antagonist not withstanding.

We also see the  return of  Jetta and her husband Thabian.

A return  I wasn't really thrilled  to  see but  Jetta is a  worthy  opponent of  Brittany and probably  one of the few  physical  opponents that can actually stand up against her, at this point in the series. 

Most of this  issue is  a fight scene between Jetta and Brittany where Brittany is  hopelessly outclassed, despite training. 

While Tanya  plays the rest of her  hand. 

It's her doing  to  kidnap  Jetta's son  disguised  as  Brittany to move Brittany in  a  kinda  angry Jetta's  vincity. 

And to  try and destroy Strype and Brittany's relationship again disguised as Brittany. 

We also get to see  DR Diggers in action and  its obvious that he is a lot more powerfull, the he has ever let on  thus far.

This is a perfectly fine issue.

It's a great issue  actually. A show case of  Brittany's  personality with out  completely assassinating her character  and turning her in to a ditzy  valley girl, like later issues  will do. 

As well as reintroducing  Jetta and her husband  and showing  how dangerous  both Brittany and Jetta can be, when pushed  to their limits.

Brittany however is  more reluctant to kill, even when driven to a rage. 

As well as setting Thabian up, as the reasonable one. 

Then again in issue 4 of the mini he was already  the  more level headed of the two werewolves and  is a powerhouse, able to take out Brittany with  ease.

As well as  putting two and two  together  and  coming to the conclusion that Brittany  is not  the kidnapper. 

But Tanya's  motivation is flimsy. 

Thankfully however  she  immediately plays her hand right away,  and this  wont be a long running  plot poin.t

Unlike later issues,  where Perry  really  plays it  for the long run. 

There is very  little levity and very little humor here. 

Much  like  issues  3 and  4. 

Which is  actually,  what makes it  a  great  issue. No humor for the sake of humor no  gags or pop culture  references.

Just a story that can stand on it's own two merits.

And sometimes I wish the series was more like this. 

But then if it was, it wouldn't be Gold Digger.

issue 5  also  gives  a single page  to  Brianna,  Genn and  Gina interacting. Which is the only source of levity in this issue and even  this  page  is not as over the top,  as will become  customary in this  title. It's fairly lowkey  and mostly  just world building.

Issue 5  keeps the same high  quality issue 4 did, albeit with a slight misfire in Tanya's motivation. 

But  her idea is actually sound, nor does  the storyline linger.

It gets  going  immediately. 

The other misfire is not  the comic's fault. The scan  quality in the Gold Digger online archive is deplorable and hard to read. 

But it's a great issue non the less and  the third in a string of great issues.