Review by C.J. Bunce

This year marks the 90th year since Nancy Drew first started showing off her detective skills in The Secret of the Old Clock by Mildred Benson back in 1930.  Eighty million books in print later and several adaptations in different media including a current CW TV series, and despite updates and changes to the character, readers keep coming back for more.  Partnered with her familiar allies The Hardy Boys, a new series from Dynamite Comics arrives next week, but will it be the last?  Get ready for Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew.

Writer Anthony Del Col (Luke Cage) joins artist Joe Eisma (Riverdale) and colorist Salvadore Aiala to offer readers a grim look back at the circumstances leading up to death at a pier of none other than Nancy Drew, buried at age 19 at a nearby cemetery.  What happened and what went so wrong for the young sleuth?

Eisma and Aiala’s sparse imagery and muted tones set the mood of the two Hardy brothers as they angrily move from place to place and suspect to suspect.

Although the modern stories don’t altogether match the tone of the original novels, this latest darker, grim story is a fun try-on of ideas, and the combination of some familiar crime story tropes.

Add Dynamite Comics’ Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew to your comic shop pull list, or call Elite Comics to grab a copy. The first issue arrives June 3, 2020.