The Cast: Pandora, Widow, Beset, Vulcan

The Catalyst: Strife has returned and is planning on resurrecting Zeus. The demon Beset cannot allow that to happen.

The Convergence: Pandora gets word that Strife is back and while investigating, runs into both carnage and Widow who has been enlisted by Beset to do his bidding.

The Critique: Mike Wolfer’s Widow and Avatar’s Pandora collide in this one-shot and the two heroines definitely seem to go together much like a peanut butter and jam sandwich. The authors of this tale would craft a fun bit of horror and adventure, the two women uniting over a common cause but not before a little fracas as Widow would be under the spell of Vulcan’s armour, armour crafted specifically so that she would obey Beset’s commands. With the two women on the same team, nothing can stand against them and as they cut down demons and whatnot, Beset is getting not only angry but a little worried, though he hides it well. At the end of the day, Widow – who had found out she had crossed over to this dimension due to a spell, is now stuck and the fragile relationship she struck up with Pandora is still that even though they go their separate ways. The story is solid, it gives a bit of background on both of the characters, and introduces the villains of the piece and their motivations into why they are doing what they are doing all of which is a good thing. If there was one slight negative, it would be that they never really brought Strife into the book and if she was supposed to be the ultimate of big bads, the person whom Widow was supposed to be stopping, then she should have been in the story. As it stands, Beset made for a good bad guy and while he may not have ended up being soundly defeated, he was at least forced to retreat. The star of the show is Mike Wolfer whose artwork at this point in time was much improved over the early Ground Zero issues of Widow and the book looked great. The women were attractive, playing into that bad girl phase of comics when this was released and being in black and white served to really enhance the linework. Though it could have used a little bit more here and there, particularly being a little longer which would have served it greatly, the book was a fun read and would also lead into Pandora’s next series which in a sense, makes it essential at least to those who collect Pandora’s titles. Good stuff overall.

The Credits: William A. Christensen, Mark Seifert and Mike Wolfer – Writers; Mike Wolfer Artist, Mike Wolfer and Thomas Florimonte – Inkers

Companies Involved: Avatar Press

Chronology: September, 1997