Written by JEN VAN METER
Art by ROBERTO DE LA TORRE
Cover by TRAVEL FOREMAN
REVIEW
Building on their solid first issue Jen Van Meter and Roberto De La Torre delve deeper into the mystery with a great second issue in this new series from Valiant Comics.
One of my major criticisms from the previous issue of this book was how cold Dr Mirage herself was, when reading this first issue you get the feeling that the character is just not that likeable. However, Van Meter proves that sticking with a comic can open your eyes to see a character in a whole new light. This issue delves into Dr Mirage“s history a lot more, showcasing some of her early years with the man who would become her husband Hwen. Here we see a much warmer character someone who you warm to instantly as the young rookie out to prove herself and you begin to see the bonds of love that form between these two characters. This allows you to see the character in a whole new light and can begin to understand the profound effect this loss has had on the character.
De La Torre“s art continues to be a perfect fit for this book, and particular attention in this issue must be paid to his designs on the demons that pop up in this issue, one part terrifying and wholey brutal in their look a feel. As a lot of this book takes place in the spirit realm De La Torre is allowed to cut loose giving the reader some great backdrops for the main character to explore, everything is just detailed enough to give you a sense of where you are but is vague enough that you can instantly tell you are in the spirit realm giving most of this book a misty quality that everything you are experiencing is not quite real.
The colouring in this issue really deserves a special mention as in certain scenes it appears that each colour used is tied to an emotion (red for rage and violet for love for example) as each scene tends to have one prevalent color to the rest it is a really great visual tool that gives the reader a visual queue to recognise what the characters are currently feeling.
Overall Dr Mirage #2 is another solid entry into this series, really building on what has been started in the previous issue an adding more intrigue and a few interesting twists and turns along the way. Allowing the reader to really understand the main characters mind set whilst pushing the plot along at a reasonable pace, it will be exciting to see where this goes in future issues.
3/5
By Matt Deery
Author Profile
- Matt Deery is an avid comic reader from the UK, relatively new to the writing scene but, enjoying being part of the Comic Crusaders team and getting to talk about some the books that I adore. Will read almost anything Marvel, with Spider-Man and Iron Man being my all time favorite comic book characters and has recently found a love for Image and Valiant books and generally anything Sci FI or Espionage related. Check out my twitter @brujah69ad if you want to stop by and talk comics, video games or movies!
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