Blood & Thunder #2 // Review
Akeldama is discussing matters with her partner “Thunder.” She’s been given a proising offer to work for the police.She’s not going to take it. If she accepted that job, they would want her to get a new gun. She doesn’t want a new gun. She wants to keep working with Thunder. Thunder is the only gun she wants to work with. There’s a lot for Akeldama to consider in Blood & Thunder #2. Writer Benito Cereno continues an interesting buddy action series with artist E.J. Su. Color comes to the page courtesy of Michele Assarasakorn.
Akeldama tries to move the conversation over in a direction that might be a bit more comforting. She’s asking Thunder about her father. (Thunder was originally assigned to her father.) She wants to know more about a man she never got to know as well as she would have liked to have known him. And now she’s working with his gun. It’s an old model, but she wants to be able to work with something that’s intelligent...something that she can talk to. It’s a strong link to her father, too. She doesn’t want to lose track of that either.
There’s a lot more going on in the issue than just the backstory. There’s a lot more going on than the story of the first time that girl met gun when she was very, very young. There’s a whole matter of a prisoner form Cell Black X who has escaped. He’s huge and menacing. Not exactly human. More of a monster, really. The thing is: Cereno’s backstory on the relationship between Akeldama and the gun is a LOT more interesting than the conflict that they’re being moved towards. This is perfectly fine as there’s more than enough backstory to justify the issue’s cover price.
Su’s rendering of the visuals feel deeply immersive. There’s a great deal of detail in the futuristic metroplex in the backgrounds. Some of the designwork on various elements in the foreground are a great deal of fun as well. It’s remarkably interesting on a whole bunch of different levels. The overall drama going on between a young woman and her massive, non-anthropomorphized gun comes across with a vivid sense of emotion, which is pretty remarkable given the nature of the two “people” involved. There’s something about hte way Su frames the drama that makes it feel remarkably clever and emotionally affecting.
The whole issue might not bee remarkably original, but the central relationship between Thunder and its owner feels fresh and intriguing enough to carry the series through some of its slower, more derivative moments. It’s been a lot of interesting so far. There’s going to eventually need to be more introduced beyond the central appeal of the series if it’s going to be interesting after the basics of the relationship between the two main characters. For now, though, it’s a great deal of energy. So much of the overall energy of the rest of the series feels like a particularly uninspired Judge Dredd story. Thankfully, there’s a girl and her gun that keep it all interesting.
