Lady Mechanika: Bilingual steam punktress


Slated for September 26, 17 release, get your preorders in!

Lady Mechanika, part human and part machine, is haunted. As a detective in early 20th century England, she has done things she regrets and caused people she cares for to die. The Lady, running from her past and pain, heads across the ocean.

  • Lady Mechanika: La Dama de la Muerte (Benitez)
  • 88 pages
  • Benitez Productions
  • ISBN-10: 0996603069
  • ISBN-13: 978-0996603065


In Mexico, she arrives and is welcomed by the citizens of a small town. Lady arrives November 1869, on the Day of the Dead and celebrates life and loss with them. Her red eyes are explained away and beautifully melded with face makeup in the classic sugar skull.

Santa Muerta, the Devil's mistress, Lady of the Underworld. She has a penchant for forcing people's hand. While Mechanika may have a need to heal, Santa Muerta prefers people sweat it out a bit.

During the celebration, a messenger arrives and the villagers prepare for midnight when the demon rider Jinetes will come for their payments from the living. Lady Mechanika, decides to put her faith in science and logic, and hunt down the Jinetes to free the people.



La Dama de la Muerte is the collected trilogy volume from 2016.

Like other great series, Mechanika has had a minimal number of published issues. It focuses on stunning artwork and story. Set in a Steam Punk world, those who do not care for this genre will still be able to enjoy this collection. The extent of technology in this series begins with the fact that Lady herself is part machine (generally unnoticeable), and ends with the fact that she arrives in Mexico on a train (not unusual for 1869). It neatly sidesteps the need for deep genre familiarity and allows you to wallow in vibrant colors and beautiful design details.

This clean presentation is as graceful as the Lady Mechanika herself. It brings gorgeous cover to cover artwork, lots of full page alternate covers, but unfortunately not a lot of back story or additional editorial content. If you are unfamiliar with the series, this can stand alone, but will absolutely leave a couple questions unanswered for the un-indoctrinated.

Minor spoiler** There is one specific scene reminding me of a particularly brutal Wolverine/Logan attack. Lady can work a knife.. End spoil.

The presentation had one flaw which irked, the collection is penned in English, and calls out anything being spoken in Spanish <*translated to English> by sandwiching inside of <alligator brackets>. This drove me a little crazy as the majority of text uses these. They are after all in Mexico and just about every word is Spanish translated. Why not put the things spoken in English in brackets.. This gripe does not take away from the work; it is just a personal annoyance that would cause me to burst if I failed to mention. I might have to find a Spanish language version of this just to see what it looks like translated and if I am just moronic for being annoyed. Does it present better?


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Disclosure-

This work was provided to me by the publisher for review purposes. I considered writing this review in Spanish until I realized I do not understand Spanish. As an old friend of mine used to say frequently, 'Por favor lavar mi langosta.' <Please wash my lobster.>

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