Last month when I reviewed Manifest Destiny, I was intrigued by the cover with all of its bold use of color and openness, tethered with an underbelly of the bizarre. I had mentioned how it was an alluring cover and that I was happy to report that when you enter into the pages of this comic, the allure holds and you will be entertained, informed, and excited for the next issue of this mini-series to come out. Nothing has changed here in the second issue. The allure is still there. Manifest Destiny offers an alternative history of events placing a “spin” to them focusing on those things of the supernatural or unexplained. We are still given the "standard" story of how Lewis and Clark were commissioned by President Jefferson to explore and survey the land received during the Louisiana Purchase which consisted of an enormous territory that makes up much of these United States of America. They were given a directive to collect, document, and detail their findings. Nothing has changed, except that the President also gave Lewis and Clark orders to "clear" the land of any oddities as well as document and collect. In issue one; the expedition did encounter some "interesting" findings.
Now we are here at Issue two and the party has to deal with the realization of what they encountered and how they are to deal with it for the rest of the way. The good news here is that they are still close to some "civilization" and they are headed to a French fort that should offer them some comfort as they continue into the great unknown. Well guess what? The great unknown is still full of great mystery (and danger) and just because they are headed to a fort, doesn't mean that they are safe by any means. It is a page turner to be sure, well scripted and suspenseful.
Matthew Roberts continues to render artwork that has a majestically pure quality to it with an eerie undertone. It has a sense of mystery to it that allows the reader to form their own conclusions to what they see. Likewise, Charles Dingess does a fine job in scripting the characters and fleshing them out so you get a good feel of who they are and what they stand for in this series. The initial opening writings helped us to get a feel for who the characters are, but here we begin to see the men by their past experiences and we start to see the many emotional levels of the party as the deal with the strange and unusual (and dangerous) elements of the wild that they have encountered thus far.
Manifest Destiny #2 is very similar to issue one as you will have an enjoyable time reading it. It is bold, adventurous, exciting, (and dangerous) with beautiful use of artwork and writing collaborating to form a read of good fun, great adventure, and dark mystery.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Charles Dingess Artist: Matthew Roberts Publisher: Image/Skybound Entertainment Price: $2.99 Release Date: 12/11/2013