Lady Baltimore: The Witch Queen #1, from Dark Horse this week, has a history. 
This latest venture follows in the footsteps of the Baltimore title, dating wayyy back to 2007. Writers Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden reunite to keep moving along in this witch, vampire, and Nazi-infested manifesto.
Lady Baltimore is Lord Baltimore’s widow. It’s now early in WWII in Europe, so late 1930s, or 1940. Dark spirit forces are rising again and reuniting, ’cause it feels so good. Can Lady Baltimore overcome these monsters without becoming one herself?
The setup is solid and creepy. The conflict is deadly; Nasty little supernatural underlings have attacked Lady B at night, on the street. It looks overwhelming, and she’s alone with her sword and magic stun gun!
It’s a good story, not a great one. The art by Brigit Connell (colour by Michelle Madsen) is sombre and evocative. We hear the evil, we see the evil. And as Lady B walks in shadow in the valley of death, she seems too confident, cocky. But, but: their chief weapons are fear and surprise…. yet we feel no suspense, we are not really worried about Lady B and her pals. And how is that?
The story is largely shown in long shot, with small figures. Maybe we need to zoom in to feel physically close to the characters? Maybe there need to be panels showing our characters truly feeling scared? Whatever the reason, this issue reads well but doesn’t pack the punch that it seems to be aiming for. The setups are fine, but I walked away from this one unscathed.
Dark Horse, Lady Baltimore: The Witch Queens #1, $3.99 for 22 pages of content
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