By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (creators & writers), Paul Gulacy (art), Rain Beredo (colors) & John J. Hill (letters)
The Story: A group of four secret agents is sent from the future into the past to stop the construction of a weapon that will kill the human race.
What’s Good: I loved issue #1 of this series and the story in this issue switches from the sci-fi elements (secret Nazi weapons and time travel) to a good old fashioned WWII espionage story as our group of four agents (I guess that’s what I’d call them) end up getting sent back to the latter parts of WWII to stop the creation of the Omega Weapon (that kills humanity in 2012). I was impressed at how easily Palmiotti and Gray shifted from a pure sci-fi story in issue #1 to a more Inglorious Basterds story for issue #2 where our small group of 4 is isolated and without backup while on their secret mission. If you liked Inglorious Basterds or recent comics like 7 Psychopaths, you’ll probably get a kick out of this issue. There is lots of Nazi killing.
As a middle arc, this issue also has a purpose: to get all the pieces in place for the finale. And it does that very well. I am very eager to see how this plays out in the finale because our heroes have left quite a wake of dead bodies and I’m sure all that screwing with the timeline will have some repercussions in the “present” and we also have the issue of the scientist who created the Time Bomb being missing in the past. I’m sure he has to turn up somewhere and that should be fun.
The art is generally good. It is very crisp, consistent and atmospheric. Although it is more photo-referenced that I usually care for, it doesn’t fall into some of the problems with photo-reference: use of famous actors for facial models, heads pasted awkwardly onto bodies, etc. Instead it plays to the strengths of that art form to generate realistic layouts which fits given that this issue isn’t sci-fi and needs to be rooted in reality.
What’s Not So Good: I just have couple of quibbles and if I seem to go on-and-on about them, that is mostly because I feel more of an obligation to clearly state what I didn’t like because it is bad reviewing to just say, “It sucks!”
One quibble is with the story. After a first issue that was very sci-fi, we are now getting a WWII story. Although I do respect seeing that the writers can do both genres very well, it makes me wonder what issue #3 has in store. Personally, I want more of the sci-fi, but I really don’t have an expectation as to whether I’ll get that or not.
I also thought the story drug a little bit in the middle of this issue as the agents were running around in disguise trying to gather information. The issue saved itself just in time by advancing the plot, but I did have a moment where I thought, “C’mon! Let’s get on with it.” In the book’s defense, it did advance things on the very page after I thought that, but I still thought that. It could just be due to Radical’s unique format. On one hand, they are giving you a HELL of a lot of comic book for $4.99. It is 52 dense pages that’ll take you over an hour to read. I generally like the Radical format, but wonder if the fact that I’m so hard-wired that “comic books are 22 pages and take 20 minutes to read” let to some of my impatience.
The art is generally a positive, but it does have a few of the problems of photo reference. Many faces started to look the same to me as if Gulacy needed a few more models. And, like every photo reference comic I’ve read, it can have a little trouble with sequential art in the action scenes where the panels don’t flow together into a smooth fight. I know that is picky, but my issue is that the dialog over the top of the fight is seamless whereas the panels make you feel like you missed something (“How did he do that with his right hand if the guy is standing over there in the previous panel”).
Conclusion: Even though I’ve picked a little bit, I do like this comic series and am looking forward to issue #3. Palmiotti and Gray have a neat sci-fi/WWII story going and I want to see how it turns out. Definitely worth picking up when you visit the comic shop on Thursday (since it’s Labor Day this week).
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
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