REVIEW: Redcoat #2
Redcoat #2 sees Simon Pure battling cultists and meeting none other than the genius scientist Albert Einstein during his childhood. Whilst a lot of care went into the art of this book, most of it ended up being covered with way too much text, which is a shame because the background art and the character art are fantastic.
After battling cultists, Simon Pure is cursed to die very soon and he seeks out historical figure Benedict Arnold in hopes of finding a cure for his malaise. In between action shots, and civil war guns Simon Pure battles his way through hordes of red hooded cultists with Albert Einstein by his side. Simon Pure became immortal during the Battle of Trenton on December 25th, 1776 however in this issue that same immortality is threatened.
Whilst mostly an action comic, this particular issue feature some lighthearted moments brought to us by Albert Einstein and his German American vocabulary. In this issue Albert is unusually a little kid and thusly he’s very funny and filled with energy. It provides a nice contrast to the overall seriousness of the immortal civil war man, Simon Pure. The overall pacing is pretty quick but it doesn’t leave you lost, it works very well for an action story, however there are way too many inner monologue boxes from Simon Pure and very often they don’t add much to the actual story playing out in front of us. The balance between action and exposition is heavily skewed towards exposition and at times it can become very boring to read through page after page of backstory. However, it is still very cool to see historical figures thrown into a world of magic, and mayhem such as the world of Redcoat.
The cover art for this issue is very pretty and it features Simon Pure climbing out of a tombstone amongst people holding knives up to him, they all look very menacing, so it’s fair to assume that they do not like Simon. The credit page is sleek and features a beautiful candle wax stamp that goes very well with the aesthetic of the Civil War era and the red motif in Red Coat. There is a lot of action in the first few pages and we are immediately treated to back-to-back full page illustrations with the second one being a spread illustration of Simon kicking red hooded cultist ass. The fight scenes themselves are very nice to look at however they are a little odd in terms of composition and panel layout. That being said a lot of this art is top notch, even if a few poses do end up looking kinda silly here and there. One of the strongest aspects of this comic happen to be the character designs (mostly their clothing) and the environment designs. I can safely say that the amount of detail that went into these backgrounds is quite impressive.
The lettering is good, it works well and it does a nice job of moving the story forward. I am a huge fan of the German American Albert Einstein and pretty much all his word balloons are a treat to read. It’s not that he’s making jokes all the time but he definitely gives a refreshing contrast to the more boring word balloons that surround Simon Pure and his endless inner monologuing musings. While there aren’t any true sound effects in the comic, we do get some really creative word balloons when it comes to screams and grunts which sort of serves as the sound effects of this world, and that’s nice. I like the creativity that went into the lettering. One thing I did notice is that sometimes some inner monologue boxes started with cursive letters and these could at times become difficult to read. I also found a typo in the text and well not a fan of that of course.
All in all it was a fun comic to read. It wasn’t super interesting but it wasn’t too boring either. The full page illustrations were outstanding, and I enjoyed the coloring greatly. I also liked the bonus content at the end with Albert Einstein’s character sheet, however it had wayyyy too much text and I simply wasn’t gonna be reading that much especially not on a character sheet bonus. One thing I did like the timeline that we got at the end that chronicled several of the Ghost Machines book and gave them a cohesive order of reading. I liked that that was good fan service. It’s a fun read. It’s nice to see familiar historical figures in new contexts. The action is top notch but it could use with less exposition and much less inner monologuing. If you’re into civil war era attire and stories then definitely give this a try.
Writing: 3.5 Stars Art: 5 Stars Colors: 5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars
Created by: Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch Inked by: Andrew Currie & Bryan Hitch Coloring by: Brad Anderson Lettering by: Rob Leigh
Cover art by: Bryan Hitch & Brad Anderson
Variant Covers by: Ivan Reis, Danny Miki & Brad Anderson Published by: Image Comics
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