Lady Mechanika: The Devil in the Lake

Lady Mechanika Volume 8: The Devil in the Lake (2025) Joe Benítez, M. M. Chen, Siya Oum

There is something horrible in Lake Labynkyr.

Something that is taking people–including an entire university research team.

So the Grand Duchess of Russia asks Lady Mechanika to investigate–to find her friend who was on that research team.

Things don’t go well.

After the disappointment of the comic I just read, it was a relief to fall into something I did love.

Aside from the expedition, Lady Mechanika has problems.

Primarily, Mr Lewis refuses to talk to her and is trying to drink himself to death .

But almost as important, she is she is starting to have visions, mostly of the damage she believes she has caused.

One thing I particularly noticed is that Fred is aging with the story.

To be clear, I like kids in stories! The problem is that kids are often poorly written, acting as plot moppets rather than as independent characters interacting as normal kids would. And the often age erratically, usually staying younger than the story timeline should have them. So I always appreciate it when kids grow and are shown as kids.

One of the things I loved best is a huge spoiler, so I’ll not mention it, but you’ll probably recognize it when you see it.

Mostly, I was glad for another volume of the story. I hate having to wait years between volumes, but I know that’s not the writers fault, and I did support the kickstarter, so they could afford the time to create this volume.

Could you start here? Possibly. But this is volume 8, so it’s no hardship to go back and read the rest of the series before coming to this one.

Characters: Lady Mechanika, Mr. Lewis, Winifred, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Yevgeny Sergeyvich Morozov, Borislav Nikonovich, Ivan Alexeyvich, Tygyn, Misha, Vadik, Charlie Owen, Ayta Olunskya, Duley, Morana, Elizabeth Owen, Matthew Owen, Nyurgun, the Dragon

Publisher: Image Comics

Rating: 8.5/10

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