By Jonathan Edwards

At first I didn't want to review this one. However, it probably wasn't for the reason you'd initially think. I liked the first issue of Generation Gone well enough that I kind of wanted to keep my reading of the book casual. That way, I could take my time with each issue and not have to immediately jump into the critical thinking. Of course, that would've also likely meant I'd quickly fall behind in my reading of it (I'm already behind on a number of books I'm already reading casually). And since there really wasn't all that much else coming out this week that I felt the desire to review, I decided I might as well just go ahead and do Generation Gone #2. And, you know what? I'm glad I did.  Because, now I'm interested in talking about this one.

The first thing I was to commend this issue for is the fact that, despite being just barely over half the length of the previous installment, Kot succeeds at maintaining the same decompressed pace and tone while also ensuring that the overall story is progressing and picking up momentum. It's not an easy balance to strike, and, to bring this up again, he was not so successful when he attempted the same thing with Wolf. But honestly, I'm finding it harder and harder to understand why exactly that is. The more I read of Generation Gone, the more it seems like Kot just made Wolf oblique just for the sake of making it oblique. Because, he seems to be sacrificing nothing to write straightforwardly here.  

Regardless, we begin sometime after we left off last time, with Elena, Baldwin, and Nick awake and in the middle of figuring out what all they are now capable of. Meanwhile, the General grills Akio on the rationale behind giving teenagers superpowers, and Akio tries like the devil to keep himself involved with the project. And funnily enough, there's not too much else to this issue. I mean, we jump back and forth between the two situations, and there's plenty of character development to go around. But it terms of story beats, that's about it. And, for the most part it does work. I mean, Akio and Nick are feeling a bit tropey and perhaps a tad one note, and I don't think we needed to both hear Akio talk about what happened to his family and then see a dream flashback of it. But, those are minor gripes that really aren't having much of an impact on the story and its enjoyability.

I still very much like Araujo's art for pretty much all of the same reasons I said before. However, this time, Chris O'Halloran has a bit more leeway to play with interesting and evocative colors and contrasts. And if you've read my past reviews, you know I'm all about expressive colors. Really, the only slight criticism I would have is that some of Elena's flight poses aren't quite dynamic as they could be. But once again, that's pretty small potatoes stuff that doesn't hurt the story.

After the last issue, I was intrigued with Generation Gone but not quite wholly sold on Ales Kot again. Now, I think I am. At least for now. I'm honestly not quite sure if I'll be back to review the next issue, or if I will go back to my original plan of just reading it casually. Regardless, if you're a fan of the superhero genre and writers trying to do their own thing with it, I'd definitely say Generation Gone is worth giving a shot.

Score: 4/5 

Generation Gone #2
Writer: Ales Kot
Artist: Andre Lima Aruajo
Colorist: Chris O'Halloran
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Desgin: Tom Muller
Editor: Lizzie Kaye
Publisher: Image Comics