To say it's been a while since the last issue of Leave it to Chance is a bit of an understatement. I greeted the return of this title with surprised happiness, but also with more than a little confusion, as Robinson underestimates just how much old readers will remember and doesn't really provide an accessible introduction to his rather sizable cast. The story itself is pretty approachable, with the basics of Chance learning to become the Falconer she's meant to be and an impressive citywide magical problem that needs solving, but the surrounding details of the cast and the city are left a little vague. While the writing wasn't quite as stellar as I'd remembered, however, the artwork looked every bit as great as I expected, and overall this is a fun reintroduction to a great series that I wasn't sure we'd ever really see again.
I recently reacquainted myself with Leave it to Chance when Image released the hardcover of volume one, but there are eight issues between that volume and this one, and clearly a lot has happened. I vaguely remember some of the villains introduced, such as the pirate ghost of Captain Hitch, but a little rundown of "what had gone before" wouldn't have hurt in the least. The pinups and character spotlights in the back were helpful, but not as helpful as a more straightforward text piece would have been.
However, while I did feel a little out of sorts in regard to Chance's status quo, the story in this volume does actually stand alone pretty well. The death of Chance's father seems like a fairly important plot point to be introduced so quickly, but I have a feeling I know where her father is actually lurking given clues in the story, and his "death" does force Chance into a new role, that of protector of the city rather than rebellious daughter of the protector. This story is a setup for a gathering of Chance's dangerous villains, but it's also a "coming of age" type story for Chance, as she has to stand alone against the magical dangers that threaten Devil's Echo, not to mention facing one of her painful childhood memories in the form of a particularly nasty zombie.
The pacing on the story seems somewhat strange, as Robinson races through to introduce various characters and situations, and Chance's characterization as a result shifts quite a bit during this story, depending on what the plot requires of her. However, for every strange jump from one point of the story to another, there's a terrific moment, executed to perfection by Paul Smith. The sudden appearance of the rose from the rafters was a great indication of the rival/romance relationship that Chance and Lightfoot seem destined to share, and the sudden appearance of Quince, armed with technology to beat back the zombies, is a great cavalry moment. In fact, the whole story really gets to its best when the zombie invasion actually starts, and Chance and friends are forced into a time-sensitive mission of stopping them rather than sort of aimlessly wandering.
I love reading Leave it to Chance in collected form, when the whole story can be viewed in one shot and Paul Smith's artwork is given the oversized treatment that it so richly deserves. However, this is a fun reintroduction to the character, with beautiful artwork and bonus materials like pin-ups and thumbnails of the original designs for the story to complete it. Though I'm sure the material will be collected eventually, this is almost a mini-trade paperback in itself, and aside from relatively minor accessibility and pacing issues, I enjoyed it immensely.
