I’ve been a fan of Zorro for as long as I can remember. Something about the swashbuckling, charming hero with a keen sense of justice really appeals to me. Dynamite’s been doing a great job with their (too few and too far between) Zorro stories, and added a few characters to his mythos. So, when I saw that Ladies Rawhide and Zorro were going to work together, I got curious. 

The basic plot is simple enough. Zorro himself is away, and the local corrupt officials are up to their usual no good. The Ladies get together to stage Zorro’s “death,” in order to buy some time. About to go their separate ways, they find a desperate child in the woods, followed by several ruthless men. One brutal fight later, the Ladies learn that the men are part of a large group of raiders that have kidnapped most of the girl’s village. Clearly, heroics are called for, and the story set in motion.

I didn’t love this. I wanted to, but there were a few problems with it. While I like the idea of Lady Rawhide, I’ve never liked her costume. Sure, it’s sexy as hell, I won’t argue that. But it’s completely inappropriate for the time period for one thing. For another, it looks impractical, like she’d be about to pop out of it as she did her fighting. And, while the laces and straps look great, it seems like she’d need an assistant to get in and out of the thing.

Wardrobe issues aside, there were other problems. First of all, the writer has no idea of period language. I’m not saying he needs to go study historical records, but I’m pretty damn sure that “scumbag” “kinda,” and “jerk” are all modern words, very out of place in Spanish California.

The sword Lady Z uses, as with her mentor, is essentially a fencing foil. It’s a weapon for stabbing and parrying. Here, she uses it to slice off heads and limbs, and it’s just designed for that. It wouldn’t work.  And there are some art issues. The one that really bothered me was Lady Rawhide’s gunbelt. It would randomly appear, vanish, and change details, like which side the gun was on, or how many guns it had. That’s just sloppy.

These are two very strong female characters at a time when women were ignored. I’d really like to have seen how they met and their initial reactions to each other, but that gets skipped. They just start off knowing and respecting each other. I feel we got slighted by that oversight, at least a bit.

Plot: The main plot is decent enough. Noble heroes helping the oppressed poor is a classic heroic tale, and I have no issues with it. It’s s decent set up. I’ll give the plot a 3 out of 5.

Art: The women look great, points there. I mentioned the detail issues above. I’ll go 2.5 of 5 for the art.

Positives: We get to see two heroes in action, and Zorro’s absence is explained. The bad guys are appropriately vile. The women are fearless heroes.

Negatives: I mentioned my big problems above, I won’t go over all of them again. But I was disappointed that in the impersonation scene, “Zorro” never once did his trademark Z with the sword.

I was overall not thrilled with this issue. I hope it gets better as the series goes. If not, I may drop it before the conclusion.

Lady Rawhide/Lady Zorro 1

Writer: Shannon Eric Denton
Artist: Rey Villegas
Colorist: Morgan Hickman
Letterer: Marshall Dillon (Gunsmoke, anyone?)
Cover: Mike Mayhew