Valda Cooper just found out that she’s been given the power to slay the wicked. And she’s a bit upset about it. She’s being possessed by an ancient spirit of vengeance. When she’s finally lucid enough to know what the hell’s going on, the ancient spirit has a hell of a lot of explaining to do in Grimm Spotlight: Iron Maiden. Writer Chas! Pangburn delivers an origin for a superhero as drawn to page and panel by artist Renato Rei with the aid of colorist Robby Bevard. The script might seem a bit stiff in places, but it’s a surprisingly deep and thematically complex origin for a story that could have been a simple slugfest in the rain at night.

Val Cooper has been having difficulty sleeping. She has nightmares of ancient Greece involving a woman who was sentenced to the iron maiden. Certainly not the most pleasant dreams to be waking up from, but they’re the least of Val’s concerns. She wakes up on a pier soaking wet, and she knows her nightmares aren’t just in her head. There’s a criminal in danger of the spirit of vengeance within her. Val’s going to find out rather quickly that no one else can help her. If she’s to spare the life of the guilty, she’s going to have to take control of the spirit within. 

Pangburn is working with interesting dichotomies in the story. The spirit of vengeance that is the Iron Maiden seeks to punish those who have victimized others, but in the process, she’s doing the same thing to her vessel in the modern world. The criminal the spirit looks to kill is a really repugnant human being, but the spirit’s vengeance would be murder. It’s morally complex stuff that makes for an appealingly complicated backdrop for a fun superhero action story. 

Rei’s action can feel a bit weird and awkward in places. Poses don’t always look natural, and when they do, they don’t always convey the intensity that the script is trying to bring across. That being said, the visuals are remarkably powerful in places. Rei does some beautiful work on the layout. At the beginning of the issue, Val’s tossing and turning in bed, and Rei brings it to the page with a visually engaging style. Bevard’s colors vividly establish mood, from the blood red of ancient Greece to the cool blues of an ostensibly peaceful modern bedroom to the gorgeous radiance of magic gleaming in a metropolitan evening’s downpour. 

Val’s got some great lines in the run of the script that make her a very distinct personality. It would be all too easy for the alter ego of a superhero to get washed out in the process of an origin story. Pangburn does a very sharp job of making her a fun person to hang out with for 30 pages or so. The visuals aren’t perfect, but they’re strong enough to make an appealing impact. 

Grade: B