Lucy is doing the best that she can. There’s a danger that she is being pushed into. There’s a danger that they’re following her into. She’s doing the best she can as she tries to make up for past failures in Lucy Claire: Redemption #3. Writer/Artist John Upchurch picks up the pace a bit in urban horror fantasy that seems to have finally found its footing. Lucy Claire and company are immersed in a world that’s both familiar and dangerous. Upchurch guides Lucy Claire into stylish danger that makes for a fun 20+ pages.

The famed werewolf hunter Lucy is taking a group of aspiring werewolf-hunting colleagues to retrieve a couple of very powerful swords from the house of the first wolf hunter. There are things she’s not telling them about. She didn’t tell them about the crater surrounding the house in which the swords rests. (She didn’t know about that.) She’s not telling them about the coming attack by the massive, spectral God Wolf. (She didn’t know about that either.) With any luck, what she does know will help her with everything that she doesn’t know. Some help from her friends is going to be required as well. 

The story opens in a junkyard amidst cute, little foxes and the shadows of Lucy Claire’s past. Upchurch paces this issue well as the hero climbs out of the shadows of the past to guide a group of formidable warriors on a quest to find that which will make their hunt a little easier. Sharp fantasy adventure edges sneaking out of the corners of the darkness that dominates Lucy Claire’s life. Things are starting to come together for her even as her life falls into greater turmoil. The triumph of this issue cleverly sets-up more serious dangers for the issues ahead in a thoughtfully-scripted third issue. 

The story alone wouldn’t work. Upchurch’s artwork finds just the right visual edge to the story he’s telling. The viciousness of combat brings a real sense of menace to the page. The quiet drama of the journey between combats this issue feels solemn and weighty with the occasionally sparkling bit of fantasy. The crater around a single residential American home is a clever fusion between the familiar and surreal horror fantasy imagery. The energy of the God Wolf at issue’s end feels ghostly radiant in a way that gives Lucy Claire a real challenge in which to sink her swords that makes for a hell of a visual impact. 

For all its successes this issue, it’s still a tale like so many others in heroic fiction. There is little doubt that Lucy will find her way the way all lost heroes do. The overall story is still kind of weak and derivative, but Upchurch’s fusion of plot and visuals makes another journey with a weary hero feel fresh around the edges. She may not have seemed like much at the beginning of the series, but by the end of the third issue, Lucy’s beginning to feel like someone special.

Grade: A-