I remember when it sat on the shelves of the comic shop I used to go to, back in 2010, and although I could have subscribed and picked up my monthly issue, I didn’t. I don’t know why. I probably had several other titles running at the same time and couldn’t afford to add another one. Now I regret it, because I’d have it in my collection. You can’t have everything. In 2022 Dark Horse published a volume that collects the entire work in an excellent edition. At some point I found it at a fantastic price, bought it, read it, and without exaggeration, Scarlet sits comfortably among Bendis’s five best comics. Maleev is consistently superb, so there’s nothing to qualify or single out. His work is uniformly strong. Enough with the generalities. At the center of the story is Scarlet Rue, drawn in meticulous detail. She narrates her life herself and even breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader, as if only she can see an invisible camera, turning to us to say what needs to be said....