By Cat Wyatt

In issue #1 of Death of Love our main character, Harris, was a little on the dumb side and took a drug from a complete stranger (something I’m pretty sure our parents have been trying to teach us not to do since before we could walk…but whatever). The drug? Well apparently it can give you the ability to see cupids (cupidae?), and trust me; they do not like being seen. When we last saw Harris, he was running to the bathroom in a panic, hoping that the cupid he spotted wouldn’t shoot him with an arrow (and not the ‘make you fall in love’ type of arrow either).

Thanks to some quick thinking (which surprised me), Harris was able to trick the cupid into thinking he was mistaken. How you wonder? Mostly by staring into the mirror and not reacting one bit to the cupid’s actions, which would be insanely difficult to pull off. So I feel compelled to give full credit for this.

After an adventure like that, it’s no surprise that Harris ran home and told his roommate the whole story. To his roommate’s credit, he reacted exactly the same way I probably would have. By screaming at Harris about taking drugs from a stranger (and assuming everything Harris saw was a hallucination caused by said drug). Totally fair, for the record. Harris took a huge risk and was monumentally stupid when he did that. He’s lucky he isn’t dead (for more than one reason).

The story also started up a bit of a debate. What exactly is the plural form for Cupid? Is it cupids? Cupidae? These two seem to be leaning towards Cupidae, but who knows. Cherubs would probably be best, but that changes the implication a little bit, doesn’t it?

Anyway, back to the story. Frustrated with his roommate not believing him, he decides to tell the story to Zoe (his ‘one true love’) whom admittedly has a different reaction. She thinks the whole thing is freaken hilarious (which is also a tally in the ‘she doesn’t like you like that’ box, since she was never concerned about his safety).

So two strikes and zero believers. That doesn’t exactly sit well for somebody like Harris, especially since Zoe, the girl of his dreams, basically spurned him by laughing at the whole thing. So instead of just getting over it like a normal person (something he should seriously consider doing), dumb dumb Harris decides to…you guessed it, take another dose of the drug. Yep. You read that right. He’s officially tempting fate, if you ask me.

But you’re probably wondering how exactly does this prove that he wasn’t experiencing a drug induced hallucination? I mean, sure, we could argue about the odds of getting the same trip twice in a row like that. Which is one way the roommate could have taken this news when informed. But again, that’s not how I would have reacted either, so credit to him. It certainly looks like Harris is having a seriously meltdown in the face of rejection, and thus has convinced himself that he’ll never find love (something which the cupidae would confirm, by refusing to shoot him).

So twice now Harris has taken this mystery drug (again, from a stranger) and had the same odd experience. And twice now nobody has believed his story. Most people would probably get frustrated, vent it out, but ultimately move on with their lives.

So naturally we know that is the exact opposite of what Harris is going to do. He’s going to take the drug (again!) and then track down and capture one of them! Because that’s totally safe (not to mention that anybody not on the drug still wouldn’t be able to see it…so…).

To Harris’ credit, the first part of the plan actually goes pretty well (all things considered). As it turns out a being that doesn’t think anybody can see him is pretty easy to sneak up upon, which makes sense. Keep a winged critter with supernatural speed in a bag however? That’s a bit trickier, but doable.

So Harris and his captured cupid have a conversation of sorts, during which we’re given some of the history of cupidae and the hows and whys of their work. Which was actually pretty cool, more the shame that Harris didn’t actually learn any of that. I’m not sure the information Harris actually got from the cupid was of any real use.

Even the best laid plans have a tendency to go awry, so it’s only natural that the sloppily planned ones go down as well. While I’m not surprised that Harris’ plan didn’t work out the way he hoped, I was surprised by what actually did end up happening. And I have to tell you, Harris is in for a rough ride next issue. I almost feel bad for him.

This has been both an interesting and hilarious (at times) series so far. I love the slow buildup the creators have been going for. When I first started reading issue #1, based on some of the earlier images I thought Harris would be covered in cupidae by the end of the first issue. That turned out to not be true, with the author playing a slightly longer game than that. I’m curious to see what will happen next – and how the cupidae will respond to Harris’ actions.

The artwork has been consistently great these past two issues. The cupid characters all look alike on the whole, but have great expressions (especially when they’re angry or confused). There is one graphic scene, but the artist did a great job of having it be graphic but not gory; it was the perfect balance, if you ask me. I still love the chosen color palette, and this issue cover has probably been my favorite so far.

Score: 4/5

Death of Love #2
Image Comics