The first issue of Noctua was interesting; it wasn’t the most original story involving vampires that I have ever read, but it had potential that I was willing to check out again. The other thing about the first issue was that in a way it began without you and wasn’t the strongest beginning because of this, but now that I have the second issue I can see that it was the best way to start the series. I would actually even recommend to new readers to check out both issues because they complement each other very well. The second issue opens with a vampire meeting with a human trafficker on behalf of his employer. There seems to be some debate about some unpaid women that were killed in the first issue. The man supplying the women feels that he should be paid for the dead women and mouths off to the vampire that’s come to check on the next shipment. The vampire delivers his own message after killing a few dudes and that message is, “shut up and supply the women.” Well that and “be happy you even get paid.”

After this scene the story heads to another meeting, this time with the head vampire’s son and a dude that looks like Agent 47. The son wants to hire Mr. Kowalski to kill Noctua to which he agrees after shoving a steak in the waiter’s mouth. It’s clear that Mr. Kowalski isn’t a fan of transhumans aka vampires, but he’s willing to take their money. We also learn the back story for the man known as Noctua and the possible origin of vampires which was actually pretty cool. I’m not going to spoil this scene though, but it definitely paints a picture that better explains Noctua’s revenge.

The story has a lot of characters, but I think that for the moment they’re all playing their role in the big picture. Eventually I can see all the parts coming together and falling into place, but that means that we spend a lot of time checking in with the different groups. I think that this second issue’s story was constructed better. I had an easier time following the plot and characters even if I couldn’t remember all of their names. I definitely like the concept behind the creation of the vampires and of Noctua.

The art is consistent for the most part, but definitely struggled in other parts. The scene in the restaurant was an entertaining scene, but the waiter looked different each time. He was also the only character to have thought bubbles in the entire scene which felt out of place. The art really should have conveyed his feelings so that they weren’t necessary or just dropped altogether. There were other times that the art was very good like in the lab; it seemed to me that whenever action was involved it would get a bit rushed.

Overall I think this issue was pretty consistent with the first issue in most areas. I do think that people will have a better understanding of the story if they read both issues back to back, but even still this issue does a good job of standing on its own and filling in a lot of the questions from the first issue. For a series that’s dealing with vampires it didn’t focus solely on them and that’s a good thing.

Score: 3/5

Writer/Creator: Andrew M. Henderson Artist: J.C. Grande Colorist: Eagle Gosselin Publisher: Alterna Press Release Date: 10/2/13