If you're into steampunk and have not yet delved into the world of Lady Mechanika, you're missing out. It's a great comic with a fast-paced plot, full of adventure and some incredibly detailed artwork. This volume is a self-contained story involving Mechanika's search for a girl similar to herself in the hopes that she can rediscover (and remember) her past.

I loved everything about this graphic novel collection. It is beautifully illustrated, the characters are well developed, and the story is entertaining and draws you along with it. This is easily one of my new favorites! I would totally cosplay Lady Mechanika, well done!

I'm a sucker for steampunk...and I loved the flare and story portrayed in this one. The artwork is wonderful, although a little dark on some panels.

If you're interested in steampunk, humans fused with machines, badass heroines with giant boobs, and some of the most gorgeous artwork I've ever seen in a comic, check out this first volume in the Lady Mechanika series.

Lady Mechanika Volume 1: Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse was, for me, a good but lacking work. The artwork is wonderful though I think we should have reached the point where extreme emphasis on cleavage has given way to more realistically drawn characters. I know, realistic-looking when talking about a steampunk graphic novel involving a part-mechanical woman, but I think you know what I mean, whether you agree or not. I would have gone with 3.5 stars but that isn't an option here so I went with 4 stars because I also read Volume 2 and found it to be better.

One definite redeeming quality throughout the series that I can see is the emphasis on being more accepting of those who might otherwise be considered "other." This is a great message and one that is evident without, I feel, beating the reader over the head with it.

Steampunk is not a normal go-to genre for me, with the exception of earlier works from SF&F that have retroactively become considered steampunk even though such a genre or subgenre did not exist at the time. In fact, I tend to be drawn to graphic novels in the genre over regular novels because the combination of periods is stunning in visual form. As a story I did feel this was a little lacking but I am overlooking some of the dryness because I think some of it was to set-up the characters for future volumes.

I would recommend this to both steampunk and graphic novel fans.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

Volume One collects the first comic arc, issue 0 as well as 1 through 6. A young girl is found in Mechanika City, and dies at the train station after escaping being hunted. This is the titular mechanical corpse for the volume, and Lady Mechanika is determined to uncover her origins, as it might lead her to the people that created her. The art is gorgeously detailed and the lettering fits the time period depicted. The cover art gallery at the end of the book is especially gorgeous to look at. Some speech bubbles are rather cluttered, such as when Mechanika and Katherine meet and find that the corpse is gone, or during Mechani-Con. Lady Mechanika doesn't seem to have much of a personality here, though it could be because she's suspicious of everyone and seems to have only one friend. Her suspicions are rather justified, as Katherine (aka Commander Winter) and Lord Blackpool have teamed up and are interested in killing her. We discover what happened to the mechanical girl, but we never really learn why. There are far more questions left unanswered by the end of it, and a sense of foreboding about what will happen to Lady Mechanika. It's a great way to hook in readers for future issues, as there isn't quite enough in Mechanika's interactions on her own to draw interest.

I love a good steampunk and this is probably one of the best I've read. It certainly helps that it is a comic and therefor can show more than tell. I was afraid this would be too mature for our teen graphic novels collection, but thanks to the ARC, I can safely say we will absolutely be purchashing this title! I was completely enamored with Lady Mechanika and can't wait to read more!

A decently intriguing graphic novel, though at times it seemed to get bogged down a bit. The art was pretty good if a little unrealistically proportioned in regards to Mechanika herself but the steampunk elements were beautiful and sharp. I did get a little confused with of the guy characters: they were both drawn enough alike that at first I couldn't tell one from the other in one scene (and didn't remember their names so I couldn't identify them that way either :D) but otherwise the artwork was pretty good (Mechanika is just a bit unbelievably busty). The story itself was intriguing enough but it did seem to drag at times, partly due to some of the drawn out dialogue. I am looking forward to reading through the second book which I hope leans a little more towards the adventure side of the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lady Mechanika is hunting for her maker, the one who grafted mechanical parts onto a female form years ago. But every time she gets close, Lord Blackpool and his armaments corporation gets in the way. Now, when a dead partially mechanical girl shows up in the city, Lady Mechanika investigates. Now, all she has to do is infiltrate a flying masquerade ball and locate a missing gypsy for the hope of an answer. I am looking forward to more tales in Lady Mechanika's world.

Too steampunky for my taste. I picked it up a handful of times but was never drawn in by the story nor its illustrations.

This was beyond boring. Very little action. Mostly just people talking in steampunk outfits. So. Much. dialogue. I actually nodded off a few times. I liked the character designs. Benitez is a talented artist. However, he needs to study real female anatomy some more. I'm guessing Lady Mechanika became a cyborg to help hold those comicly large breasts up.

Lady Mechanika, Vol. 1: the Mystery of Mechanical Corpse by Joe Benitez brings back the unique and incredibly well written tale of everyone's favorite Victorian England Steampunk hero. Beautifully illustrated, this collection is sure to create another generation of fans to join the cult following Lady Mechanika already enjoys.

She is Lady Mechanika, the lone survivor of a mad scientist's experiments, which left her with mechanical limbs. She has no memory of her former life and finds that she must rebuild a new one for herself. She becomes an adventurer and private investigator, using her strange and new abilities to solve crimes the police are not able to.

When the corpse of a young woman with mechanical limbs is found in the very city where she was found, Lady Mechanika may finally have a lead to her very own origin and moves all she can to investigate. Set in an alternative Steampunk Victorian England where magic and inventions clash for their hold on reality. Where beautiful women with mechanical appendages and corsets and steam powered dirigibles fill the skies. this new Lady Mechanika tale tells the story of a young woman's search for her past.

Joe Benitez continues the story of Lady Mechanika and with terrific artwork backing up some of the best storytelling going around he has created an independent comic line not to be missed. This one is far superior to so many of the comic books on the market that it would be criminal to miss this one.

Lady Mechanika is a book that will be hard to find in its current print run so be one of the few in the know and get your copies now!

Very entertaining and engaging, and spectacular artwork. Some might say that this volume is very wordy, and it is, but the wordiness is vital to understanding the plot. At any rate, I'll keep reading this series.

Lady Mechanika sounded very interesting, since I enjoy steampunk. There's something about the rusty mechanics. Even the cover looks very appealing, but that's about it. The comic introduces us Lady Mechanika, who tries to solve how she came to be this mechanical monstress she is. She also finds a dead mechanical girl and starts to investigate that and whether they have the same maker or not. In a sense this is a mystery and detective story, but we don't really get anything out of it. The plot moves very slowly and the structure is heavy. The walls of text are unappealing and the story is just running from one place to another without a good pace. The comic is messy mostly and it's odd how how fast it is considering that nothing happens in it. We don't really get to know the characters and they are paper thin and mostly boring. There's hardly any soul to the content, sadly so.

The color theme of dark and brown works well, although it's slightly cliched considering that they seem to be the standard for steampunk. The art reminded me of Battle Angel Alita mostly and thus it's a bit 1990s. Also, who would wear shirts like that? Tits always ganging out? The inking is sketchy and rough looking, which makes the comic crude at times, but otherwise it creates this horror-look that suits the atmosphere. The panels are too full mostly and the structure is psychedelic every once in a while. The different kinds of fonts are distracting too and I'd say less is more, trust me. It took me forever to read this.

DNF. Steampunk London, and a pneumatic Edwina Scissorhands has to work out where her origins lay. You have to work out how much of the boring characters just coming and going is down to shoddy storytelling and/or prior series of comics giving a background you know nothing of – and as I can't see any mention of other appearances of this character I just have to blame the author. The first sections of the story were fine, then it just turned into boring, stodgy talkie bits, and I had to give up.

It was a great graphic novel and would recommend it to people who like steampunk fantasy but manga is still my go to for comics.

It was love at first sight with this graphic novel and even though you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, I’m very glad I did! It does help that I’m a big fan of Steampunk.

This is the story of Lady Mechanika, a half-human half-machine in her search to discover her identity and her maker. As her journey takes her to the city where she was found, the Lady investigates a peculiar death of a young girl much like her at the local train station. Does it have anything to do with her? Was it the same person that transformed her? In a Steampunk world where Man and machine are one, nothing will stand in her way until she gets her answers.

There isn’t anything I didn’t like in this graphic novel: the artwork is breathtaking, absolutely brilliant and the colours go perfectly with the dark and industrial setting. It was amazing to see how this world worked and it was impossible not to love the beautiful landscapes. The story-line is very well thought and it’s steady-paced. Details of this world are all around the story, but not enough to be boring.

Lady Mechanika is a great character: elegant, graceful, quick with the guns, seemly cold and detached but with a caring heart hidden underneath. She doesn’t care if it’s human, machine or not human at all, if they need help she will give it. However, don’t piss her off. Lady Mechanika doesn’t care about power or hierarchy in society, if anyone stands in her way or even threatens her… well, you have to read it to find out the rest.

Loved every minute and I’ll start the second volume very soon!

I unfortunately did not finish this graphic novel.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to mark this as Did Not Finish. I read part of the first volume and lost interest about 25% of the way through.

*** 3.5, but not enough for 4 ***

I enjoyed Lady Mechanika a lot more than I did Wraithborn. Considering my immense disappointment with the latter, I was almost scared to start Lady Mechanika.

But as I received both of these, and the 2nd volume of Lady Mechanika, from NetGalley, I had to finish it. I am glad I had this incentive, because ultimately, Lady Mechanika is by far better than Wraithborn.

Lady Mechanika is the epitome of steampunk. Everything about it is highly detailed and intricate. If you look at the illustrations, you would notice that there are layers upon layers of art and attention to detail and I can’t not admit how impressive that is.

The art, in general, was much better here than in Wraithborn. If you remember my review, I was aghast at the depiction of women. They are still very sexual in Lady Mechanika, but it’s done a lot more tastefully, to a point where I can agree that this is the wet dream of a classy high school boy.

I also found the story more intriguing. I enjoyed the main story arc about the mechanical people a lot. The part that didn’t impress me as much were the sub-plots and hints at other relations between the character that just add fluff to a story that could go without. Almost all characters are related in pairs and have common past. These two are siblings, those two worked together, the two men know each other, etc. etc. As far as the story about the Frankenstein-esque doctor who creates the mechanical people goes, there’s already enough suspense that everything else is just micromanagement of pages that need to be filled.

And speaking of, my major issue with Lady Mechanika: the writing. Literally. The author really wanted to write a book, didn’t have enough material for that, but he obviously had too much for a comic book. There is just SO MUCH DIALOGUE. It doesn’t go harmoniously with graphic novels. A book rat such as myself can tell you as much: when you are reading a book, you can take as many pages of text as there are; but if you are reading a comic book, you are not prepared for the insane amount of dialogue that is just out of place and both disjoints the story, and distracts the reader.