Spaceman #2 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Eduardo Risso (art), Trish Mulvihill, Clem Robins (letters), Mark Doyle & Will Dennis (editors), Dave Johnson (cover)

The Story: Our titular spaceman get’s tangled up in a kidnapping plot while having semi-explanatory flashbacks to the past.

Five Things: 

1. Story is starting to round into shape. – Last issue spent most of its time establishing the basic atmosphere of this semi-dystopian, quasi-post-apocalyptic future world.  Here we start to really get into the meat of the story as Orson, our central “spaceman”, stumbles upon a little girl who has been kidnapped while picking for junk out on the open ocean.  It looks like there’ll be a bit of an odd-couple vibe: Hulking spaceman who is a societal outcast protecting little girl (who will doubtless be kind to him because children aren’t burdened with society’s baggage).  But, this issue will make any 100 Bullets fan feel right at home as the whole fight on the ocean is gritty and grimy: dude laying there with his guts handing out, talking all tough, gunplay, violence, slang language….  It’s like sci-fi 100 Bullets.

2. Still a LOT we don’t know. – Although this issue starts to tease things, we still don’t know what really happened to the world to make it this way.  The creators give just the right amount of teasing to keep us interested in that part of the plot.  You know how it is: When the creators keep ending scenes one panel too soon?  If they’d just keep the scene going for one panel longer we’d understand everything?  Sometimes that can be frustrating, but these guys are doing it very well.

3. Love Risso’s art! – Honestly, a LOT of the attraction to this series is the art of Eduardo Risso.  It isn’t just the drawing, but the overall sense of graphic design that pervades the issue.  He always seems to pick a wonderful angle to illustrate a scene from and Risso is also a master of directing the reader’s eyes across the page in the order he chooses.  A fun thing I like to do with a Risso comic is use your hands to cover up parts of a panel, but leave the “main” part alone.  It’s really cool how you still get the idea behind the story that way, but it makes you appreciate how well he constructed the panel to make it a richer experience.

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the Past Week: Wolverine and the X-Men #2 – Even though it was a light week volume wise, there was a LOT of quality last week (Secret Avengers and Cap & Bucky were also excellent), but my favorite was Wolverine and the X-Men #2.  It just has such a different tone than what we’ve typically gotten from X-Men comics because it incorporates Jason Aaron’s black sense of humor.  And of course, any comic with Chris Bachalo drawing is almost automatically going to be in the running for “pick of the week”.  I know there are some folks who complain about Bachalo, but they’re wrong.  Dude is among the best in the business.  Keep reading this site and we’ll train you properly in art appreciation.  🙂  Runner-up: The Unwritten #31.5 (found inside: some answers!)

Most Anticipated This Week: Daredevil #6 – Yeesh, another light week for me.  There are a few other comics that I’m looking forward to (see below), but Daredevil has been sooooo good since its reboot that it has to be the pick here.  Mark Waid has been telling a fun and accessible story and the art from Marcos Martin is sure to be incredible.

Other picks: Spaceman #2, Bomb Queen VII #1, Thunderbolts #166, Uncanny X-Men #2, Haunt #19