Trust Issues
Despite the lack of the first cover's embarrassing error, this cover's not nearly as good. The black background and over abundance of shadow.... tentacle... things... is a weak and lazy attempt to avoid a sense of emptiness to the cover. It actually CREATES one since it helps the whole image feel more flat. Also part of this is the way everyone is taking up pretty much the same amount of space despite being in different positions. It's just boring. Too flat.
Luckily this does not extend to Chirchill's interior art, where he really does some fantastic work. Everything is just so smoothly executed; the action flows nicely, the facial expressions are great, backgrounds have the perfect amount of detail. And the COLORS. Perfect.
This issue begins by tackling my biggest complaint from the previous issue, almost nullifying it. While the first issue spent a bit too much time in one location, this issue picks up already on its way out of the situation. A perfect balance between too much and too little, and we're whittled down to our main cast. Mostly. I'll get to that later.
Lightning and Thunder get a little much needed development. I've seen people complaining that Lightning's kind of a bitch, but I might be soft on her since she's not even 1/3 as much of a bitch as Wonder Girl is; and frankly Lightning GROWS from it. Wonder Girl's only been snowballing in her bitchiness. They're a pretty standard brother/sister dedicated duo, but Thunder's powers seem interesting.
Ridge is a source of general fun, though his dialogue, when not fun, consists mostly of 'I don't trust you. Maybe I trust you. We shouldn't trust you,' and just... UGH. There's just a bit TOO much focus on all the trust issue, maybe I'm overwhelmed after this week's Superboy. I still think it's overplayed a bit too much in this series thus far.
Caitlin Fairchild is desperately trying to be the most liked character, and she's succeeding. This is a double edged sword, because she IS the focus, so I enjoy her life; but it also means the others aren't taking enough focus. Not only that, since Fairchild's the most suspicious, we're built to trust her, and forced to deal with everyone else's trust issue. Because of the perspective, we're meant to think their claims are unfair, since Fairchild IS good. There's no sense of mystery to the mistrust, so it further alienates the other characters from the readers.
We get another look at Harvest, and his extraordinary precise planning, and yet we see that he's not perfect and he knows it. He acknowledges oversights and calmly adjusts his plans on the fly. He's a vary careful planner; not everything is absolutely perfect to the second, but he knows how to patch up holes that spring up. I'm liking this guy more and more, though I hope we don't have four series constantly focusing on him, which is why I'm excited for what's teased next issue, it seems like a temporary tangent.
Shadow Walker is wasted as a villain, the first one to come after them once they've totally escaped is generally the 'test villain' but he's given a backstory that puts him nearly on top of the pecking order. He was just too important for them to face so early on.
The last page has Beast Boy inexplicably dream a prophecy. I HATE it when characters have prophetic dreams 'just because.' Hopefully there's a good reason that will be explained next issue, but this time it comes across painfully forced. But his face was also drawn very much as one would expect Beast Boy to look. Not brooding and badass, but like an easygoing teen.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
Not as strong as the debut issue. It's still filled with a lot of the same good qualities, but this issue has more holes in it. I think it just needs these first few issues to work out the kinks.
