At the start of the 1990s emerged a new popular trend in the comic book world, the Bad Girls comics. Violent scantily clad busty women of supernatural/occult origins who quickly found an audience in this bubbling market. Vampirella was making a comeback, but soon also came Neil Gaiman’s Angela, Rob Liefeld’s Avengelyne, Billy Tucci’s Shi, Marc Silvestri’s Witchblade, but before them, there was Lady Death.
Introduced in 1991 by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes in Evil Ernie #1 published by Chaos! Comics, Lady Death was originally a hallucination. Ernest “Ernie” Fairchild thought that she was his dream girl and she would love him if he killed everything on Earth. Evil Ernie was deranged, to say the least. Nevertheless, Lady Death caught on and moved to become something else.
In her own series, Lady Death was introduce as Hope, a young Swedish medieval girl whose power-mad father tries to gain enough strength to challenge the lord of hell so he can become its ruler. As she tried to save herself, Hope ended up in Hell fighting Lucifer. She cast him through Heaven’s Gate and took his place as the ruler of Hell–but he cursed her, she can never return to the mortal plane so long as the living walk the Earth.
As the 1990s progressed, Lady Death found her way into more Chaos! Comics series and additional miniseries. But once Chaos! Comics filed for bankruptcy, the character rights were sold and Lady Death entered the CrossGen universe–but not all the Chaos characters followed her. Brian Pulido continued to work on Lady Death with the (family-friendly) series Medieval Lady Death, but CrossGen Entertainment followed the same road as Chaos! Comics. Lady Death was this time sold to Avatar Press where Pulido worked on two series, Medieval Lady Death as well as the Classic Lady Death.
Since then Lady Death moved to a new imprint at Avatar Press (Boundless Comics) before jumping to Coffin Comics, Brian Pulido’s own publishing company.
Lady Death Comics Reading Order
As Lady Death jumped from one publishing house to the next, it’s hard to follow and even find some of the books nowadays. You may want to start with the Coffin Comics Universe.
The Chaos! Comics Lady Death Universe (1994-2002)
- Evil Ernie: Youth Gone Wild
- Lady Death: The Reckoning
- Lady Death: Between Heaven & Hell
- Chaos Quarterly #1-3
- Lady Death Fan Edition
- Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell #4
- Lady Death: The Odyssey
- Lady Death: The Crucible
- Lady Death (1997) #0-16
- Lady Death: Dragon Wars
- Lady Death: Retribution
- Lady Death: The Rapture
The Armageddon Crossover
- Armageddon #1
- Lady Death: Judgement War Prelude
- Purgatori: Goddess Rising #4
- Lady Death: Judgement War #1
- Evil Ernie: War of the Dead #1
- Armageddon #2
- Lady Death: Judgement War #2
- Lady Death/Purgatori
- Evil Ernie: War of the Dead #2
- Armageddon #3
- Lady Death: Judgement War #3
- Evil Ernie: War of the Dead #3
- Armageddon #4
- Aftermath #1
Armageddon ends here
- Lady Death: Dark Millennium
- Lady Death: Tribulation
- Purgatori vs. Lady Death
- Love Bites
- Lady Death: River of Fear
- Lady Death: Alive
- Mischief Night
- Witchblade and Lady Death
- Lady Death: Last Rites
- Heartbreaker
- Lady Death and Bedlam
- Lady Death: The Gauntlet
- Lady Death: Goddess Returns
- United: Lady Death, Chastity, and Bad Kitty
The Avatar Press/Boundless Comics Lady Death Universe (2004-2015)
As it is explained on the Coffin Comics website, the 2004 to 2015 Lady Death stories that were published by Avatar Press/Boundless Comics are now considered to represent a dream state experienced by Lady Death between the events of her original Chaos! series and the events of the debut Coffin Comics Lady Death title, Chaos Rules in 2015. Those stories are not canon anymore.
Medieval Lady Death
Medieval Lady Death is not the same character as the now-called Classic Lady Death, it’s an all-ages version from “A Medieval Tale” published at CrossGen.
- Medieval Lady Death
- Medieval Lady Death/Belladonna
- Medieval Lady Death: War of the Winds
Classic Lady Death
- Lady Death: Abandon All Hope
- Lady Death: Death Goddess
- Lady Death: The Wicked
- Lady Death: War Angel
- Lost Souls* — crossover between Lady Death, War Angel, Pandora, and Unholy.
- Lady Death vs War Angel*
- Lady Death vs Pandora*
- Lady Death: Sacrilege
- Lady Death vs Shi
- Lady Death: Blacklands
*Those books formed a trilogy.
Lady Death from the Boundless Comics imprint
- Origins Cursed
- Lady Death Series (2010-2013)
- Lady Death Apocalypse
The Coffin Comics Lady Death Universe
Lady Death awakes from a 20-year, spell-induced slumber and finds herself in the fiery pits of Hell. Who among her depraved enemies is responsible?
This is the best entry point for new Lady Death readers today. Coffin Comics is an independent publishing company, you can find their books at coffincomicsshop.com.
- Lady Death Rules Vol. 1
Collects Chaos Rules (Chapter 1), Damnation Game (Chapter 2), and Extinction Express (Chapter 3). - Lady Death Rules Vol. 2
Collects Lady Oblivion Kiss (Chapter 4), Lady Merciless Onslaught (Chapter 5), Lady Unholy Ruin (Chapter 6), and Lady Apocalyptic Abyss (Chapter 7). - Lady Death Rules Vol. 3
Collects Nightmare Symphony (Chapter 8), ScorchedEarth (Chapter 9), and BlasphemyAnthem (Chapter 10). - Lady Death Rules Vol. 4
Collects Malevolent Decimation (Chapter 11), Treacherous Infamy (Chapter 12), Cataclysmic Majesty (Chapter 13), and Sacrificial Annihilation (Chapter 14) - Hellwitch vs. Lady Death: Wargasm
- Chapter 15: Necrotic Genesis
- Chapter 16: Diabolical Harvest
- Chapter 17: Cybernetic Desecration
- Lady Death vs. Zombie Tramp #1
- Chaotica: Spellbound #1
- Chapter 18: Imperial Requiem
- Chapter 19: Demonic Omens