Out now from Archie Comics is a new one-shot story of The Jaguar. It’s been a while since I had read The Jaguar, so I thought I would check it out!
Something is killing the Pampas cats of Northern Peru. A group of zoologists has come together to investigate these mysterious slayings. They know the culprit is a bird of prey, but the method of killing is unlike any of the birds local to the region. It’s going to take someone with apex predator abilities to find out who’s causing these murders…someone like Ivette Velez, aka The Jaguar! But will the predator become the prey?
Script: Keryl Brown Ahmed, Art: Tango, Colors: Ellie Wright, Letters: Jack Morelli, Cover: Maria Sanapo, Ellie Wright & Variant Cover: Reiko Murakami
It’s been a long while since I read The Jaguar - in fact, it was when the character was under the old Impact Comics imprint (which I think was owned by DC Comics). Since then, Archie Comics has taken it over and used characters such as The Sheild, The Hood and now The Jaguar.
This issue is a nice, comfortable one-shot. Ivette is taken slightly out of her comfort zone in a country where she doesn’t speak the language but has links to her heroic persona. There is a bit of mystery here, and I like that this could build into something more significant for the character. We not only look at her origins in the immediate term but also the long-term aspects of her powers and their source.
There is a good amount of action, too, which has some good peril and changes to the fight aspects, in the sky and on the ground. The new location works well; I expect to see more of this.
I enjoyed the artwork here - with the colours and lighting effects, there were some good scenes, and the cross between the camping and the action scenes was well done.
This was a good one-shot, which may get older and newer readers of the character back into it. It's with a new/old villain to check out, too.
Get it at Forbidden Planet: