“The truth lies at the heart of the art of combat.”

Beaten to a pulp and then some, our heroine Beatrix Kiddo, AKA (and rightfully so) Black Mamba, sought her roaring rampage of revenge in two volumes, ten chapters and a neatly crossed-off death list of five.

Blood-speckled-former-assassin-seeking-vengeance is Uma Thurman’s best look. Zipped up in her notorious clementine sweat suit, Thurman as Black Mamba issued a surge of badass female power, mastery that can only be achieved after having been around the block a few times. Those many, many hats — assassin, The Bride, coma patient, Kung Fu student turned master and mom — prepped  the fearless jagged-banged chick to carry out her fated calling, and all in a timely, Tarantino-esque manner.

Between the tolerance for midday sake and the fact that she can pull off driving the Pussy Wagon no problem, Thurman-Mamba (as we’ll refer to her from now on for all empowering purposes) may as well have executed the Five Point palm Exploding Heart Technique on us, ’cause we’re crazy ‘bout her.