By Dustin Cabeal

I’m not as high on Hi-Fi Fight Club as I was with the first issue and yes, I did just open with a pun. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the comic, but it hits that second issue slump that has become more and more common.

The main reason is that the plotline is stagnant. It barely inches forward and instead favors a lot of character development for Chris and Maggie. Flipping back through that’s what the bulk of the issue feels like is just these two characters. Which isn’t bad, they’re good together, and Chris’ crush on Maggie is adorable. After being introduced to the fight club, the reader is instead told a lot of their previous adventures and how all the members got there, but we’re only shown with a panel or two. To put it another way, we’re told and not shown a lot of these details. The main case that the club is working on, the missing band singer, doesn’t progress until the end of the issue. Even then, it’s something that has hardly any context to go with it.

The dialogue is tremendously good, and it’s enough to distract you from the fact that only a few hours have passed in this story over the course of reading the comic. It’s just that if you were interested in the case, they’re trying to solve or seeing them actually fight, we’ll then keep waiting. The character development for Chris and Maggie is the strongest aspect of the comic as both character come away feeling less two-dimensional.

The artwork continues to be gorgeous, but the backgrounds take a huge hit in this issue. There is little to no detail in most of the backgrounds which result in a lot of solid color/gradient backgrounds throughout the second issue. When there are backgrounds, they are beautiful, detailed and add a lot to the panel, but the minute they drop its as if everyone is sitting in a big empty room. It’s so unfortunate given how strong the rest of the artwork is, but it does rebound a little towards the end of the issue.

There’s no point in stressing the second issue; as long as it’s entertaining just keep reading and see what it has in the tank. We’ll all know more about the strengths and weaknesses of this series in a few issues, and then people can decide if it’s worth staying or going. Yes, that was a weak attempt at a Clash reference.

Score: 3/5

Hi-Fi Fight Club #2
BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box