Crimes Against Nature #2 // Review
There is a man in a yellow tracksuit who is covered in blood. There is a large gorilla who is also covered in blood. Naturally, they are going to be some questions. Naturally, there's going to be some concern. And when the gorilla points of thumb down, his longtime companion Doctor Kermit Groeden knows what it means: no police. This is very disconcerting to say the least. The gorilla in question has clearly never engaged in the sort of activity before. Things are about to get ugly in Crimes Against Nature #2. Writer Eliot Rahal and artist Mattia Monaco continue a provocative new absurdist crime serial through its second issue.
To make matters worse, the dead gentleman in the yellow tracksuit is getting a call. His phone is ringing. It's lighting up and his pocket. Groedan decides that it would be best to go ahead and answer the phone. The gorilla seems okay with him doing so. There’s a voice on the other end of the line that asks him if the job is done. He tells the voice that it is. The voice gives him an address. Nothing else to write with, so he writes it on the wall. In blood.
With the initial absurdities out of the way, Rahal is free to get into a very compelling crime drama featuring an animal trainer, a large gorilla, and some very unsavory people. There are a whole bunch of clichés at the heart of the story. However, the distinct difference is brought about by a giant gorilla and an animal trainer in this sort of situation makes it infinitely more entertaining than the average crime drama. There's a lot going on that's really appealing. Rahal deftly keeps the action moving through the entirety of the second issue of the series.
Monaco frames of the drama with a very straightforward sort of an execution. It feels more or less perfectly lined up with what it needs to be. Though there is some aspect of it that could feel vaguely cartoonish, the artist does a really good job of firmly grounding it in a very dark reality. On top of that, the color adds considerable depth to an already visually appealing story. Blood, shadow and elimination, feel particularly immersive in a remarkably immersive visual reality.
It was kind of difficult to tell exactly where this was going to be going in the first issue. There was a lot of weirdness to set up. But now that the full reality of the situation has completely set in, the creative team is doing a really good job I'm just telling a very entertaining story that happens to feature a large gorilla. It's a great deal of fun. And it will be interesting to see exactly where the series goes from here. There's a lot of different options as to what they could decide to do with it. It can go in some very strange directions. Or they could decide to firmly rooted in much more grizzly world of street level crime. Either way it could be successful.
