Swords of Sorrow: Dejah Thoris & Irene Adler #2 - A Review

Unlike the other Swords of Sorrow tie-ins thus far, this issue does not feature our titular heroines teaming-up or fighting one another. Instead we find them trading places, with Dejah Thoris now lost in Victorian London and tracking the Martian monster that is terrorizing the city. At the same time, Irene Adler tasks herself with chasing down an equally displaced big-game hunter, who is launching a one-man invasion of the city of Helium.


Leah Moore's script compares and contrasts both protagonists with surprising subtlety. Both Irene and Dejah are strong-willed women who suffer fools poorly and refuse to feel out-of-place on an alien world. But that is where the similarities stop.

Much like her famous foe Sherlock Holmes, Irene Adler is unabashedly oblivious to the feelings - or indeed existence - of the people around her. She can't even be bothered to ask the name of the cab driver she recruits as a sidekick, never mind remembering it! By contrast, Dejah tends toward a more holistic view of the world around her, at one point admonishing a crowd not because she was insulted for her scanty dress but because they stood idle and let anyone be treated so rudely. And Dejah has more than a few words for a certain Mr. Holmes when their paths cross...


The artwork for this issue is equally delightful. Francesco Manna finds the perfect balance of rich detail and fluid simplicity in the pencils and inks. And the color palettes utilized by Inlight Studio are well chosen.