By Noel Thorne
We’re in Hell in more ways than one in Her Infernal Exposition #2 – this comic is damned stinky!
Boring Lynn has rocked up to Hell’s Entrance with William Blake acting as her Virgil as she prepares to descend the myriad circles to find her family. Zzz…
I absolutely hated Blake’s dialogue. Not only is he nearly always expositing on and on in this monotonous drone but he’s doing it while constantly rhyming! It gets unbelievably annoying as writers Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson continually rearrange words to make the couplets awkwardly fit. And, though I’m not a fan of poems, in general, let alone Blake’s, I’m pretty sure he was a better poet than this:
"We now dwell inside the second circle of lust, reserved for those who used their given flesh to thrust. The mad Judge K calls this moist place his home. Forced to tend the line and try those who roam."
“Who used their given flesh to thrust” – who talks like this?! Ugh, just stop with the shitty rhymes! Page after page of this forced, contrived crap – it’s unbearable! I have a theory that this was originally an Etrigan comic but DC wisely rejected it so it got repurposed into this with Blake replacing the Demon.
Lynn remains a blank slate and I could not care less about her character or plight. Why is her family in hell in the first place again? It might’ve been mentioned already but this is such an unmemorable read I’ve already forgotten. I feel like if they’re in Hell then they probably did something to deserve it which doesn’t make me sympathize with them or Lynn’s quest anymore.
Like the first issue, this comic is filled with literary/artistic figures for some reason (Heaven’s too square, maaan?). Playing “spot the cultural reference” is like reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen again but with even less happening!
The fantastical setting should allow a talented artist free reign to come up with some interesting visuals but Kyle Charles doesn’t show us anything even remotely compelling. The social media monstrosities are just the TV-headed characters from Saga and the famous artistic figures are just copies from Google Image Search – very unimpressive, unimaginative work. Hieronymous Bosch created more eye-catching Hellish images and he lived 600 years ago!
This infernal comic is derivative and boring drivel – abandon all hope ye who enter!
Score: 1/5
Her Infernal Descent #2
Aftershock Comics