Dynamite Comics had hoped to update Miss Fury, a nearly forgotten Golden Age heroine, in a way that was both innovative and risky: time travel. And for a while it worked. And then suddenly, with issue #4, it didn’t.

Here’s the official word from Dynamite Comics:

The covert Nazi army has laid claim to 2013, determined to make the nation’s capital into Miss Fury’s final resting place. But help comes from the most unexpected figure imaginable and in the form of one of the greatest weapons of World War II! If she survives, will Marla Drake finally discover the identity of her true enemy?

Man, I really wanted to like this title. As a character who was first envisioned in the ‘40s, part of Ms. Fury’s charm was that she mixed death with sex at a time when female protagonists were usually getting saved by men, not killing them. And Rob Williams’ decision to approach socialite Marla Drake (AKA Miss Fury) as a character that had become unstuck in time seemed awesome. She toggled between an alternate 2013 where Nazis covertly run Washington DC, and a more familiar 1943 where war tensions run high. And for a while it was going strong — there was plenty of action, intrigue, and espionage. Williams kept throwing out clues suggesting a bigger mystery, but then something happened –mystery took a backseat and the novelty of time travel got pushed front and center. And something was lost. But then, with issue #4, we suddenly got a big dose of plot, almost as though Williams was trying to catch up for lost time. But it’s too much, and too fast. It feels like swallowing a spoonful of peanut butter.

Jack Herbert’s art is quickly becoming the best part of this book. Even though the script requires Herbert to leap from one time period to the other, he does so seamlessly; his art feels equally at home in 1940 at it does in 2013.

Miss Fury #4 tries its best to make up for lost time by quickly answering some of the questions that it so delicately placed in earlier issues. But the result is uneven. And ultimately unsatisfying.

2.5/5

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Max Delgado is the founder and curator of The Longbox Project (@LongBoxProject), a memory project where comics are both inspiration and point of departure. You can check it out here.