Yumi: 00-EX #2 // Review
She ran into trouble in Paris. She didn't necessarily find him there, though. She did find clues that led her to Amsterdam. Then Japan. Then Quebec. Her car is coming with her everywhere she goes. (It’s name is Jules.) She’s a young super-spy on the trail of a guy named Richard. She might not be finding Richard, but she IS finding a whole lot of danger in Yumi: 00-EX #2. Writer Doug Wagner and artist Hoyrt Silva continue a fun espionage adventure series that continues to show some promise and it's second issue.
Richard knew a lot of women. And he had romantic encounters with a lot of women. Because this is a spy series, they end up as femmes fatale. Each one of them has. Some special kind of danger about her. Each one of them is tucked away in a different corner of the world. Each one of them presumably doesn't know about the others. Because they all have deeply romantic feelings for him. And he must have some strong pole. Some strong attraction. Because they're all willing to fight for him. It's a big mess.Hopefully Yumi and Jules can straighten it all out without getting killed.
Wagoner shoots a head on the script really, really quickly. There isn't a whole lot of time with one character. And though there is substantial set up in the beginning of the issue, there isn't enough to really establish the foundation for the adventure that runs that the course of the issue. So it feels kind of incoherent even as it's being fun. And this wouldn't be quite so frustrating where not for the fact that the basic premise does actually sound really interesting. It's just not being executed very well at all. Which is really too bad.
The artwork has its own problems. But I'd also has its own charm. And it's quite a bit of charm to go around. The title character continues to be really appealing. She has her own attitude. And that attitude is quite visibly present on the page. It has a strong sense of appeal from beginning to end. And there's quite a lot going on here to be impressed by. Certainly the action feels like it's moving forward. It feels compelling. It has its own momentum. However, it keeps slashing across the page and moving from location to location. And after a while, it all kind of blurs together.
If the story could settle down for long enough to establish its momentum it could really turn into something. All of the basic elements are there. And the overall structure of the series seems interesting enough. The problem is that it's just moving so quickly that the reader doesn't necessarily have much of a chance to really connect up with it. So it's all held from a distance. It feels like a fever blur that never really engages the reader completely. It's far too busy moving forward to really develop anything clearer.
