The first volume of Death Sentence overall was pretty damn great. There was a few hiccups for me, but overall I liked the ending and seeing a story never pull its punches. This second volume picks up right after the first volume. That’s important to point out because the story could have teleported to another time in the future. Comics, movies, TV, cartoon and video games do this all the time when the creators don’t actually want to deal with the consequences of their stories actions and would rather start fresh. Thankfully writer Montynero doesn’t do that. He doesn’t want to and the story is better for it. Weasel is being cheered as the champion for defeating Monty from the last volume. While the crowd goes off on loving him he has to wonder where Verity is. Isn’t she dead? Did she somehow survive? The answer is simpler than you think and I’ll leave you to figure out what that means.
So Weasel is the people’s champion and Weasel being Weasel embraces it of course. Now out from under Monty’s effects we meet some people of authority as they come to and realize what’s going on with clarity of mind. It’s of course an opportunity for them as we’ll see later.
The story then moves to Texas and you’re thinking, “wait it’s called London?” Well it’s in Texas as we meet a tatted up, beard up, shirtless dude working with some militants getting ready to crash a plane into an IRS field office. After an interesting conversation with the leader of the group things go south. I won’t tell you how or why, but there’s a lot more going on to this story and with our bearded dude whose about to become a key player in this volume.
The first issue is a little slow at times, but again I really liked the fact that Montynero picks up right where he left off. We’re still dealing with London being a wreck, with the fact that the government has figured out how to further unlock the potential of the G+ virus and now the fact that it’s spread to America. How will they deal with it? There isn’t a lot of character development time, but then that’s not really what the first series was about either. This is a story about the world and the characters are just the players in moving the plot. It works and it keeps you interested in reading more.
The art is different on this series and to be honest I can’t really compare the two. It doesn’t matter either way because all that counts is how Martin Simmonds crafts the visuals. Simmonds style is photorealistic which is good because it keeps a consistency to the world. That is definitely something that’s important for Death Sentence as the story is grounded in reality and so to must the art be. While I’m not personally in love with the art style it does a good job of matching the story and I’m sure others will go ga-ga for it. Again it’s just more personal taste, but I still enjoyed it enough.
I actually already have the second issue to check out which I’m looking forward to doing so. That’s a good thing for two reasons: it shows that I want to keep reading and it shows that the creators are already ahead of the curb. With the high quality of the art and the in-depth story you want this series to be ahead. If you enjoyed the first series pick it up for sure and if you didn’t check it out, then do so and join us in a more mature X-Men style of comic.
Score: 4/5
Death Sentence: London #1 Writer/Creator: Montynero Artist: Martin Simmonds Publisher: Titan Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 6/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital