After a long wait, Bendis brings the goods
Brilliant returns with Issue two after a 6 month+ gap and it is definitely worth the wait. After his friends show returning student Albert what they have discovered, Amadeus urges him to help them out after testing his powers in a casino, with mixed results.
Good
Brilliant is a (excuse the pun) Brilliant spin on the “Superpowers in real life” theme that has been occurring quite a lot recently. Bendis displays his flair for snappy dialogue and character interaction while slowly feeding you the story and upping the danger the group of friends are putting themselves in.
The opening scene is a great study of Amadeus’ youthful arrogance which very quickly gets him into trouble, but also displays the dangers of the powers that he has given himself. The mix of youthful inexperience, the threat of preparing for life after education and the social environment of a university makes for characters that I could relate to and understand what’s going on in their head.
Bagley provides a clean, bright, but realistic art style that compliments the story giving the right amount of emotion in the character’s faces.
Bad
The only part of this story that has be fall out of my suspension of disbelief is that these five students/geniuses have figured out how to gain these powers without anyone else finding out. You would think that “Trans-cranial Direct Current Stimulation” would require some pretty hefty equipment and for no one to notice it gone and them to have performed this experiment without anyone having a faint curiosity of what they are doing, is slightly odd.
It’s a slight annoyance I have with this but I can understand it’s exclusion to make for better story telling.
It really sucks that it took six months to get a second issue.
Verdict
A great second issue that builds on what was setup in the first issue. It has a great tone and feel giving the reader relate-able characters and a setting that is familiar to a lot of readers. The team of Bendis & Bagley is always welcome to me.
