Juvenile #2 // Review
Sara wants to talk to Max. See: he was up on the ceiling and this spoon dropped but he stopped it in mid-air with his mind. And she kind of wants to know about that. And he’s kind of going to tell her in Juvenile #2. Writer/artist/designer Jesús Orellana’s five-part dystopian sci-fi series continues with a deeply engrossing series of moments between Sara and Max in the kids’ medical detention facility that they’re both forced to live in. It’s an interesting dynamic that hits the page once more on the tiny, little canvas of a friendship between two people with very big implications.
He says it’s the drugs they give them. (Max does.) Says that he’s stopped taking them. When you stop taking them, you get the powers. Powers of the mind. It’s not just telekinesis. He can read minds too. (Really.) Of course...Sara doesn’t believe him. (Honestly it’s like something out of a comic book.) Of course...she’s still going to try to do what he says he’s doing. They say you could die without the drugs, though. Is it really worth the risk of finding out he’s wrong or lying or whatever?
Having established the setting with the first issue, Orellana narrows the focus of the second issue to just and only the relationship between Sara and Max. The dialogue between them mixes with her internal monologue to develop something that ends up being very, very intimate between the two of them in a way that feels distinctly interesting on a whole bunch of different levels that all seem to be building some kind of serious narrative momentum towards middle of the series next issue. It should be interesting to see where Orellana decides to take the series next. There are a lot of possibilities.
Orellana has established a tiny, little world that never leaves the confines of a tiny, little secure facility. The author/artist doesn’t even allow himself the opportunity to explore the world beyond the facility in flashbacks or anything like that, which leaves a hell of a lot open for the reader’s imagination to leak-in around the edges of hte narrative. And there in the center of it all is this pairing of Sara and Max. Both of them seem very intricate and articulate throughout the issue. Orallana’s characterization of a couple of teens in the visual is every bit as nuanced and sophisticated as the dialogue he’s putting on the page.
With the seres 40% finished in its second issue, there’s still SO MUCH more that Orallana could explore in and around the edges of everything as it all progresses. There’s a great deal of potential in the series...and depending on how he chooses to end the fifth issue, there could, quite possibly, be a whole lot of room for other stories set in the world that he’s established for Sara and Max. The first couple of issues have been tight and tightly defined enough that Orallana could do quite a lot with the series moving forward through the next three issues and beyond.
