Happy birthday, Nancy Drew! You’re 90! And now you’re dead. Oops!

In Dynamite’s new series Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death Of Nancy Drew #1, the teen sleuth has apparently kicked the bucket, and her crime-solving buddies The Hardy Boys are trying to solve her murder. Not much of a celebration for a character who has been an icon for women everywhere for 90 years, right?

Writer Anthony Del Col (Luke Cage: Everyman, Kill Shakespeare) and artist Joe Eisma (Riverdale, Morning Glories) lead the series, with colorist Salvatore Aiala and letterer Crank!. The noir story begins with The Hardy Boys at her grave before the twisty, turny plot unfolds, leading the team down a path to one of their greatest mysteries to date. According to Del Col, a self-proclaimed Nancy fan, the story is in line with his previous Ringo Award-nominated Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Big Lie, which also pushed the boundaries of what is expected in a Nancy Drew story.

Reactions to the plot caused an immediate stir. Many accused the creative team and publisher of being tone deaf. The story seems to “fridge” the titular character, meaning the girl gets shoved in the corner so her big strong male counterparts can save her. But Del Col and artist Eisma are encouraging fans to read it before getting too upset.

Del Col told the NY Times, “What we tried to do is create one of the ultimate mysteries of Nancy Drew. How did she die? Who killed Nancy Drew?” He added that the series is “more than meets the eye.”

Eisma explained to CNN, “”I personally am not a fan of fridging as a plot device, and I wouldn’t have agreed to draw a book that had that as a plot element. I just hope folks will give us a chance to tell our story.”

To put your mind at ease, there’s a really good chance Nancy is alive and well, and still being the smart, resourceful detective we expect. In fact, it would be nice if she’s in charge this whole time. Was the story poor timing since it’s the character’s anniversary or was this incredibly clever marketing? Maybe a little of both, but I will personally reserve any judgments of the story until I read it.

Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death Of Nancy Drew #1 will be available for preorder in February. Ask your local comic shop to order your copy. The issue is set to release in April. For digital, head over to Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Dynamite Digital, ComicsPlus, and more.

Death of Nancy Drew

2 COMMENTS

  1. people REALLY need to stop passing judgment on comics before they’re even out yet. it’s goofy when people go all “this supposedly unannounced 5G thing that we have no idea about will RUIN DC”–and it’s goofy when people here have essentially forced the creative team to spoil their book way before it’s out.

    “there’s a really good chance Nancy is alive and well, and still being the smart, resourceful detective we expect. In fact, it would be nice if she’s in charge this whole time.”

    aaaaand we go from one ill-advised judgment to another. there are multiple readings of “death.” maybe she’s retired from detective work. IE, death may be a metaphorical death, a destruction of identity. read Eisma’s quote in the article please: “I just hope folks will give us a chance to tell our story.”

    also, isn’t fridging when a woman character’s sole purpose in a story is to die gruesomely to motivate a male protagonist? how could she even be fridged when there have been decades of stories featuring her? say they did kill Nancy off in this–but used her demise to lay the foundation for a new teenage detective (perhaps a WOC, a queer character, maybe NB, etc.)–wouldn’t that be FAR MORE respectful to Nancy as a character than just continually doing a bunch of straightforward detective stories?

    there are thousands of ways you could make a story called “The Death of Nancy Drew” work. let’s stop attempting to set up a funnel for how the story “has” to go to be deemed good. y’know, maybe this does come out and feels disrespectful to Nancy. but I will be waiting to actually read the comic before passing judgment.

  2. Nice to not include the abusive insults this creative team & their fans have thrown to anyone upset that the death/retirement/whatever of the childhood literary hero is being used as a cheap stunt. Certainly a balance response not at all catering to the egos of unprofessional hacks.

    We don’t need to read it to know it’s gonna be bad. Dynamite has continued to support EVS long after the rest of the comics industry rightfully cut ties. They’re pulling this same garbage with Red Sonja, using a writer who would need to stretch to reach South Park levels of insightful commentary. The only response they’re capable of is “you’re not ALLOWED to criticize it until you READ it (and thus give us money)”, and the defenders (like on here) are all people who would turn up in your trying-to-pretend-we’re-woke articles to complain about gay characters existing.

    It’s a terrible book by terrible people, put out by a terrible company, and you’re serving as their PR arm to pretend it’s not going to be garbage. Shame to see you’ve somehow reached a new low than either CBR or Newsarama, since at least they KNOW they’re shills.

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