/

Review: 1st Issue Special #4

1st Issue Special #4 cover
Cover uncredited

1st Issue Special #4
Published and © by DC, July 1975

Title: “Poisoned Love!”
Synopsis: Haunted by the murder of her roommates, Liza Warner attends police academy and becomes … Lady Cop!

Writer: Robert Kanigher
Penciler: John Rosenberger
Inker: Vince Colletta

Review: This reviewer hates trashing any comic, but this one is quite awful. Robert Kanigher wrote some wonderful stories during his career, but this outing is just embarrassing. See the blue-eyed, blonde beauty overcome being the weaker sex to buy ice cream for a poor black child and help a Latina with VD! All at the risk of losing her boyfriend, who doesn’t want to marry “a working man.” It’s like every cop and romance cliché of the 1970s getting together for a one-issue spectacular! John Rosenberger’s art is adequate, but not nearly enough to save this stinker.

Grade: D-

Second opinion: “Lady Cop is as mundane as mundane gets in comics. … 0 out of 4 stars.” – Jack Abramowitz, Comics Buyer’s Guide #1595, August 2004 … “Grotty.” – Alan Brightmore, Comics Unlimited #51, October-November 1979

Cool factor: So bad it’s good? Maybe.
Not-so-cool factor: Just about everything.

Notable: First appearance of Liza Warner, Lady Cop.

Character quotable:VD’s deceptive! Girls may not have symptoms! But it’s a secret destroyer poisoning you like an underground river! It can cause blindness! Insanity! Death!” – Liza Warner, Lady Cop (and, apparently, VD expert)

Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Aug. 11, 2010.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.