I don’t what it is about comics this year, but second issues, as a whole suck. It’s not just Dark Horse, though I think on average they might have the most. I’m not counting DC and Marvel because in my unpopular opinion they start at suck and suck deeper. Second issues man… they didn’t used to be this tough. Did they?
Here’s what happens in this issue so that you don’t have to read it. Faith starts working for that gangster. She does a run for him and discovers that the pickup may have been info collected after several people were murdered. She gives everyone the cold shoulder and then agrees to do another job for the gangster that continues to tell her not to ask questions. That job goes okay until the item she’s there to steal isn’t there and someone walks in on her and sets the alarm off.
That’s the entire issue.
In my reviews I don’t actually do that. I don’t like to tell you the entire issue. I’ll give you a hook, a spoiler of sorts to entice you into picking a book up or something to debate about if you’re on the fence, but rarely do I ever just tell you the entire issue. The really sad part is that there’s nothing to spoil for you. Nothing really happens. There’s no character development and we don’t see any more insight into the world. The opening tries to be progressive by having a gay couple eating food together for an entire page before Faith smashes their table. I wish this had something to do with the plot, but it seemed agenda heavy and while I support the message it doesn’t have anything to do with the story or my review. Tell a good story and let the rest seep in. Don’t pour it in.
I kind of knew this issue and potentially the rest of the series would possibly suck, but I didn’t think it would crash so hard. The free-running was barely present and it was almost as if the art team (that’s right a team, consisting of three people) were given less pages to work with.
That’s why I sometimes hate when video games are adapted because all the sudden the story becomes chatty. People are just waiting to make characters talk more and that’s disappointing because video game fans reading comics aren’t asking for that. No one is hoping for a comic book in which the main character and supporting characters talk more.
The art is inconsistent and disappointing. Only one artist returns from the first issue and you can really tell when the art switches… because it happens on the same page at times. You’d think with the creators of the game playing such a huge role in this comic that there would be more love and care put into the art. Ultimately it looks like a Dynamite licensed product which is in no way a compliment.
Unless something review worthy happens in the next issue this will be my last review for this series. I’ll finish reading it out of morbid curiosity, but I won’t talk about it anymore. I’ll suffer in silence and really if you force yourself to read this then you should do the same. We’re to blame when we intentionally continue to read bad comics. If you waited on this series, good for you. Go ahead and give the entire thing a big ole skip.
Score: 1/5
Mirror’s Edge: Exordium #2 (of 6) Writer: Christofer Emgård Artists: Various Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/14/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital