Hornsby & Halo #2 // Review
She’s a devil, but she’s growing-up on Earth. She’s got powers from Hell, but she’s being raised by a nice family. Nevertheless, she’s looking for money, so she takes some jewelry to a pawn shop. The pawn shop owner might be reluctant to buy anything from a teenage girl, but a deal is a deal in Hornsby & Halo #2. Writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Peter Snejbjerg expand the distinct world of an angel and a demon with beautifully amplified situations and visuals that feel perfectly well-articulated from beginning to end. It’s a fun second outing for an enjoyable concept.
Later-on she finds herself in the company of a biker gang that’s terrorizing the peace. It’s only a matter of time before thnigs get pretty ugly, but she’s got a plan to keep things safe. She’s willing to part with all of the money she picked-up at the pawn shop. If they know what’s good for them, they might just take her up on her offer and move on. Of course...these ARE stereotypically nasty leather-clad biker types and it’s not like they’re known for doing what’s good for them. Naturally there’s going to be a bit of trouble brewing.
Tomasi is working with some fairly simple concepts here. He’s putting them together in a way that feels interesting enough to keep it all moving forward without really having a great deal of issue with cliche. The central two characters have a rich emotional complexity about them that serves the series as a solidly respectable centerpiece for all of the action that’s rotating around the edges of everything. The basic premise of the issue may feel a bit light and cartoonish, but the characters resting t the heart of the plot are endearing enough to keep the pages moving.
The emotional nucleus at the center of the story wouldn’t really resonate on the page the way they do without some really good artwork that pulls out the joy and pathos in just the right way. Snejbjerg has a sharp sense of emotion that keeps everything that moves. The problem with the overly simplistic plotting around the edges of the issue is mitigated by delightfully amplified emotionality of the series that continues to tie it all into a very sharp personality. And it’s that personality that serves as the series’ primary gravity...keeping Tomasi’s story appealing through the second issue.
It’s still a bit difficult to tell what specific voice this particular series is going to end up with as it all moves forward into its third issue. There’s a lot of different directions that things could move in...lots of potential for some pretty serious problems as angel and demon continue to move forward. It’s a bit of a challenge to get everything to come together and there are a lot of potential problems with the basic premise that threaten to turn it into something that might not be all that different from much of the rest of the supernatural coming-of-age type of contemporary fantasy that seems to litter the margins of popular culture.
