Pretty Violent #2 // Review
A young superhero continues to learn about the intricate complexities of the job in the second issue of Pretty Violent. The tender complexities of Derek Hunter and Jason Young’s script have been given a bit more of a chance to breath in an issue in which the rubbery energy of Hunter’s art settles-down a bit into something a bit less formlessly explosive and a bit more emotionally expressive. The art IS still overpowering the story in the second issue, but far less so than it did in the debut issue last month. Spencer Holt’s colors lend the issue a shiny bubblegum sheen that adds a certain amount of appeal to the chapter.
Girl superhero Gamma Rae is patching-up the family lair. Her villainous parental figures are trying to help her out the best they can. But after she inadvertently caused a great deal of death last issue, they really feel that she would be better off being a villain. She storms out of the lair in search of crime and finds it as a bully is dominating her local playground. She seems to have everything under control until an adult superhero shows-up to handle things. When his reason for patrolling a school playground is revealed as avoidance of a greater threat, Gamma Rae is off to handle a much more significant threat than a schoolyard bully.
Hunter and Young’s story has admirable depth. Gamma Rae’s dreams of being a hero are marred by her tendency to inadvertently create death and destruction. While trying to help people out, which makes for an interesting dynamic with the villains who act as her parental figures. It’s all cleverly complex stuff. Some of the cleverness of the premise is dissolved in the cartoony world where the action takes place. The overall idea of Gamma Rae and her aspirations is complicated enough. Without having to wade through a strangely exaggerated world in which zombie outbreaks and heavily armed TV news reporters are casually tossed about. The art doesn’t help either.
Hunter’s art HAS settled-down a bit from the last issue. The explosive rubbery gore of the first issue lurches itself into the second issue, but it does so while allowing for more severe drama elements to reveal themselves. The emotional turmoil of a girl desperately seeking hero-hood is grossly exaggerated in garishly amplified facial expressions that feel far too intense. But there IS a solid thread of complexity which begins to shine through the grotesque amplification of everything. The soft pastels of Holt’s colors DO cut some of the intensity of the visuals, even ion panels featuring gore, green vomit and more.
The story of a girl who can’t help but commit crimes while trying to be a hero IS a really interesting one. It’s too bad that the art has to so wholly overpower everything else in the book. Once the series has built up a bit more momentum, the weirdly feverish pastel nightmare of the series might actually turn into something that IS both Pretty AND violent. For now, it’s still a bit of a mess.
