I was kind of worried about how Neverboy #2 would play out after the first issue. I enjoyed the first issue, it wasn’t the strongest, but the concept and the heart held it together. This issue is missing the heart and the concept is over explained to the point of numbness. We meet a new character as well. He’s a former artist that can no longer produce original art and is driving a cab to try and make ends meet. We follow him for a while getting a sense of how sad his life is, but it’s laid on so thick that it becomes too much to believe. After a series of events he runs into Neverboy who is running from the dudes on Mopeds as seen on the last page of the first issue. After that Neverboy has our cabbie take him to his last resort places to get some drugs.
The mystery is why our failed artist can see Neverboy, but it’s not very interesting and if you’re paying attention you should probably already know the answer from reading the issue. The part that doesn’t work is that after visiting Neverboy’s last, last resort they just spill the beans and explain the entire world to him. Suddenly this very high concept story is boiled down to its basic elements and it’s not better for it and there’s no solid reasoning behind explaining everything to this new character. It really comes across as a convenient opportunity to explain it to the audience rather than the character.
It’s not a bad issue, but it’s so heavy handed at times that it’s frustrating. I don’t know if Shaun Simon or the Dark Horse editors were worried that people wouldn’t stick with the mystery of such a dense world, but I suppose I’ll have to see how the next issue pans out. There are things I liked about it. I like some of the new characters introduced and again more concepts that are in play, but either the series needs to slow down or take some risks and trust the audience to stick with it.
The art continues to be great. Tyler Jenkins is flexing all kinds of muscles here and while it has his trademark character designs, seeing him go off on the page when imagination is involved is wonderful. I won’t spoil the scene I’m referring to, but it’s that good type of strange. His art in general saves this issue in a lot of ways.
Strangely enough there doesn’t feel like a lot to say about this issue. A lot is revealed, but me giving exposition of the issues exposition isn’t interesting in the least. I’m still hopeful for this series, but this issue is a definite drop from the last.
Score: 3/5
Neverboy #2 Writer: Shaun Simon Artist: Tyler Jenkins Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 4/1/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital