First there was “Baltimore,” then there was “Joe Golem: Occult Detective,” and now there’s “Lady Baltimore,” the latest series in Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Outerverse. While these series have their commonalities, “Lady Baltimore” is very much a series grounded in a state of transition; “Baltimore” and “Joe Golem” stood alone, but “Lady Baltimore” is about introducing readers to the Outerverse. Even in the first issue, there’s the sense of tracks being laid for some grand purpose. . .
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher GoldenCover by Abigail Larson
Illustrated by Bridgit Connell
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Clem RobinsOnce she was Sofia Valk, living in a village overrun by evil. In time she became Lord Baltimore’s most trusted ally. Now, more than a decade after his death, Europe has erupted with the early battles of World War 2 and dark forces are rising again. With witches, vampires, and Nazis on the march, Sofia must embrace the title of Lady Baltimore! But can she fight monsters without becoming a monster herself?
Horror genius writing team Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden reunite, with stellar art by Bridgit Connell and colors by Michelle Madsen as they return readers to the world of Baltimore.
It’s impossible to talk about “Lady Baltimore” without discussing “Baltimore” and how it ended. The final arc of that series was something of a mixed bag for me. While I thought it handled Lord Henry Baltimore’s plot well, the series had long since grown beyond him and become more of an ensemble, and it was this aspect where I felt the story was lacking. Many of the characters were simply left adrift at the series’ end.
But even back then, Mignola and Golden were setting up the Outerverse. The final arc, with the Red King’s death in 1925, the same year that Manhattan was flooded in “Joe Golem,” was no coincidence. The unfinished feeling of ‘The Red Kingdom’ was precisely because it was unfinished by design. Plot points that were brushed over in that finale are foundational elements going into “Lady Baltimore.”
Immediately this makes “Lady Baltimore” feel very different from its predecessors. They were standalone titles, but “Lady Baltimore” is a legacy title. As much as the series is its own thing, it’s also shaped by what came before. Even the title itself is a sort of question. After all, readers of “Baltimore” know Lady Elowen Baltimore is dead and Lord Henry Baltimore was the last of the Baltimores. Haigus wiped out his family. How and why Sofia Valk became Lady Baltimore, even when it seemed there was no romantic feeling between Henry and her, is a central part of establishing this series, and it retroactively reframes certain events in ‘The Red Kingdom’ (and in more ways than one). To be clear, this isn’t a case of retroactive continuity changing things to make the new story work, but rather addressing deliberate gaps in “Baltimore.”
“Lady Baltimore” isn’t just a sequel to the original series—it’s a necessary counterbalance. While Henry and Sofia have very similar purposes and share many personality traits, they are opposites in almost every other way. Sofia can’t tackle problems the way Henry would—if she did, she’d surely die—so she values her allies and trusts them in ways Henry couldn’t. It is this last aspect that makes “Lady Baltimore” particularly enjoyable for me—her vulnerability is the series’ greatest strength, yet it never undermines her as a force to reckoned with.
Since this is a first issue review, I have to talk around spoilers. That said, the new characters are really working for me, both for the new elements they add to the series and for the commentary they create on what came before. I’ll have to expand on this in a future review, but I’m looking forward to seeing how other readers react to them.
The standout of this issue for me though was Bridgit Connell’s work. This a story full of witches and monsters, and Connell seems to relish drawing this stuff. She’s taken the witches as they appeared in “Baltimore” and “Joe Golem” and found something new to bring to them, while still feeling like an extension of what came before.
Continued belowConnell’s character work stands out too. I love that Sofia is the shortest character in this story, and yet she’s drawn in such a way that she can still command a scene without artificially making her taller. I enjoy her use of body language too—the way characters inhabit each other’s personal space is particularly well handled. When Sofia is with a character she trusts, she walks close by their side. When someone she doesn’t trust enters her personal space, she turns her body so that her shoulder faces them. Most notably though, she turns her back on an approaching enemy, completely confident in her safety, knowing she has an ally watching her back. The relationship dynamics are all right there in the panels.
That said, this story very much exists in the shadow of “Baltimore,” and that’s a series that ended four years ago. Even internally, it’s been thirteen years since Henry’s death, so there’s a lot of catching up going on here, explaining how the world has changed since then, reminding us what happened, how the characters feel about all this, and how they feel about each other. . . It’s all necessary to orient the reader in this story and its world, but it does mean the series can’t quite hit the ground running like “Baltimore” could, which had the advantage of being so singularly focused on one character who was likewise singularly focused. Even still, there’s a lot packed into a mere twenty-two pages, and the way the conflict is left at the end, it certainly feels like “Lady Baltimore” will be able to break into a sprint in issue #2.
Rather frustratingly, I can’t yet talk about all the things I really loved about this issue. We’ll have to wait for “Lady Baltimore: The Witch Queens” #2. What I can say is that Sofia was my favorite character in “Baltimore,” so to see her get her own series is immensely satisfying, especially since Golden clearly wasn’t content to just do what had been done before, but build on what came before in exciting and compelling ways.
Final Verdict: 8 – This is a really strong debut for “Lady Baltimore,” but with so much to deal with in the wake of the “Baltimore” finale, there’s a definite sense that this issue is just a warm up. There are some teases for what’s ahead from Golden and Connell, and I for one am there for it.
