Bettie Page #5 Featured Reviews 

“Bettie Page” #5

By | May 16th, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

“Bettie Page” #5 sees the most charismatic secret agent headed to Scotland for a bit of down time. Trouble is, she’s got an artifact from the stars, and it’s caught the attention of more than a couple of Russian agents. Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

Cover by John Royle
Written by David Avallone
Illustrated by Jordan Michael Johnson
Colored by Valentina Pinto
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Bettie Page has saved the world a few times now, and has earned some time off, so her boss books her a nice little vacation in Scotland, at a quiet little fishing town on the banks of…Loch Ness. What could go wrong? The legendary model comes face to face with another kind of legend, as Bettie meets Nessie in another thrilling chapter from THE SECRET DIARY OF BETTIE PAGE.

Dynamite’s creators have done good work with classic exploitation characters over the years, and the second volume of “Bettie Page” is no exception. Bettie’s vacation turns into a bit of prophecy-seeking in this issue as the Russian secret agents who come after her for the Tunguska Star prove to be the least of her worries, because the Gate, otherwise known as Yog-Sothoth, is messing up some cosmic balances, and Bettie’s the only one who can stop it. Yog-Sothoth, of course, is the entity first mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and he’s pretty dissatisfied with being on the outside of our dimension. He’d like an in, and sooner rather than later. “Bettie Page” #5 kicks off another arc of this enjoyable series by upping the stakes. Big time.

Aside from Johnson’s excellent Dino-Kraken take on the Loch Ness Monster (more on that later,) Avallone is building tension very nicely for an Eldritch confrontation to come. The comic succeeds because it doesn’t rest on the novelty of its pulp mash-up concept; instead, by writing Bettie as a competent, fun and fully realized character in the midst of aliens and Elder Gods, the absurdity of it all can really shine. There’s little smarminess or wink-wink humor on the page. Avallone instead spends a lot of time building the relationships between Bettie and the female characters around her, and populating the world with a lot of classic ’50s spy movie kitsch. One reference in this issue to the fictional Bettie being paid well for her pin-up labor lands a little hard because she was not during her lifetime. Avallone’s intent here is clear, but the remark is a little too meta to fit in with her otherwise deceptively flighty humor.

As for the creeping horror, we can talk about the obvious: situating Bettie against aliens, oppressive male-dominated government structures and Lovecraftian nightmares does a lot to empower a fictional version of a woman who often struggled to keep her empowerment during her lifetime. However, it’s more interesting to look at what Avallone is doing with taboo and psychological stress by pitting the Queen of Pinups against some of the darkest things to come out of the literature of prior generations. As America codified its nuclear family narrative in the ‘50s as a reaction to the devastation of WWII, it did its best to leave behind the Gothic, the phantasmagorical and all things weird. Bettie versus Chaos is a fun and interesting way of playing with the edges of wholesomeness and Puritanical values while unearthing the specters of popular fiction, and Avallone seeds this nicely in a very entertaining story.

Johnson is “Bettie Page” #5’s guest artist, and the best part of this issue is his interpretation of the Loch Ness Monster. A few minor facial details feel rushed or out of place instead of comical, and Johnson’s style is a little too clinically cartoony to fully sell Bettie and Lyssa’s adventures. However, the monster is a delight. We’re treated to the dinosaur-esque head for a few panels, and then a quick panel of a tentacle spurs a bit of confusion. The total reveal is weird, funny and entirely unique, and strikes the right balance between absurdity and, yes, a little terror, too. The earlier teaser shot of Nessie underneath the water is beautifully done, with a nice scribble on the waves that Pinto then accents with a darker blue. Additionally, the required pin-up page of Bettie is well done.

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Johnson and Avallone’s layouts are serviceable, with a few harsh angles that fight full immersion in the castle courtyard scene. One page ends on a set of circular close-up panels that don’t entirely work, as they disorient rather than centers us or truly slow time. The intent appears to draw focus to Bettie and Endré’s reactions to each other and up the tension before the creature reveal, but the page structure and panel shapes feel unnecessarily stylized. The previous page features a circular reaction panel without the extra color and outline embellishment that works better for visual variation, as well as the book’s style of action.

Pinto’s colors are fun, and she does a lot to enhance Johnson’s facial details and fill in some otherwise simple or nonexistent backgrounds. Bettie and Lyssa’s clothing complements their skin tones and sets them apart nicely from the lake, but the brown castle stones tip the book’s sunny tone a little more toward the American Southwest than the Scottish Highlands. There’s something a little too earthy about that choice to sell the locale, but the dark green of the monster is delightful. Esposito’s work is great, as usual, with the usual amount of attention paid to minimal padding and precise balloon placement. The sound effects are great, and Nessie’s giant roars are a nice size. They’re large enough to break the gutter and stand out from the page, but not large enough to appear ridiculous or overly comical. Nessie’s giving Bettie a serious charge in this book, and Esposito’s work helps sell the monster as exactly the weird, unsettling threat it should be.

Overall, “Bettie Page” #5 is a good issue in an enjoyable run, and there’s a lot of weird stuff to come. Avallone and the creative team are flexing their comedic and absurd muscles without demeaning or dehumanizing Bettie Page, and they’re also not de-sexualizing her in the process. It’s a fine line to walk, and the team on “Bettie Page” is doing it nicely.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – “Bettie Page” #5 settles more fully into the surreal after our alien epic in previous issues, with a wild enough plot and excellent creature feature to balance a few art inconsistencies.


Christa Harader

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