MCMLXXV #1
Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: Ian Macewan
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Designer: Sonia Harris
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image
Review by Michael Farris, Jr.
MCMLXXV #1 introduces us to Pamela Evans, who is a New York City cab driver with a not-so-hidden secret: she’s also a monster slayer with a magical tire iron. As she’s trying to make a living getting her fares from Point A to Point B, mystical creatures keep popping up in her path for her to slay. She’s partially guided on her night journeys by DJ Prefect Patterson, who is her provider of sweet, soul music and a part-time lover. As the hellish attacks ramp up, it seems to be that the monsters are very familiar with Pam…and vice versa.
With a premise like that, this series is bound to be good…right? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this introductory issue falls a little flat. How could something so promising not deliver? Let me count the ways…
The first thought I had is that parts of this felt a little too familiar, starting with the Hand-like demon ninjas that first clue us off to the fact that not everything is normal here in the year MCMLXXV (1975 for those of you who forgot Roman numerals like I did). Adding to the Daredevil familiarity, is a flashback we see when she’s with an older mentor who takes a young Pamela under his wing to teach her all she needs to know about cab driving/monster hunting. I don’t want to say rip-off, but this could make it as one of those “make it look like you didn’t copy my homework” memes. Perhaps the setting in New York City doesn’t help.
The storytelling and character development are essentially sacrificed so we can make room for this crazy setting. The action jumps in basically right away and never really stops except for a pause with a dream flashback and a sex scene. Otherwise, Pamela is out there beating up monsters and getting involved in a random street brawl that looks like a gang fight between Scottish highland soccer bros and neo-Incan ceremonial priests. Where that came from, I don’t know, but it’s there. The fact that Pamela has familiarity with the monsters feels like an editorial decision to give the reader any kind of reason to come back to the series.
The artwork does a good job at giving us a feel of the streets of New York in the 70s with a soul-train kind of vibe to it, but it’s really not enough to save the story. I did enjoy the use of a grainier and vintage feel in the flashback pages. But was it an actual flashback or just a dream with false memories? Who can say?
Verdict: Skip it.
I intended to make this a wait and see simply because of how intriguing the premise was, but the more negative things I wrote about MCMLXXV #1, the more I thought this is probably beyond saving. The magical tire iron-wielding taxi driver tale is a swing and a miss.
