By Dustin Cabeal
I had a lot of praise for the first issue of Ken Garing’s follow up to Planetoid. The second issue of Praxis isn’t nearly as strong and left me wondering what exactly the issue was trying to accomplish. The story jumps forward eight years into the future and once again we’re along for the ride as the story establishes the lay of the land.
Which would be interesting, if the story hadn’t just done that in the first issue. Granted, it doesn’t feel like a massive amount of time, other than the fact that the kids from the first issue are now rebellious teens. Three of them end up in the town that’s been raised away from the settlement. There is essentially two towns now. On top of that, there’s the discovery of a third civilization that’s sprung up under their nose, but this one is the corporation that’s responsible for the slab and everything that’s plagued these people from the beginning.
That’s the nuts and bolts of the story; there are very little character development and the plot moves at a snail’s pace. To be completely honest, as a single issue this one fails to stand on its own. It’s an issue that feels as if it’s been written for the trade rather than trying to be a complete and lush issue on its own. Towards the end of the issue, I really couldn’t figure out what the goal of the story was. What was it trying to tell me or was it just setting up two different conflicts for the rest of the series? With the first volume, it was clear what the conflict was from the start, but with the follow-up, it’s becoming less clear.
The art is still really amazing and saves this issue from dipping too much. We’re shown new alien races, and there’s just something about seeing the all metal architecture. It’s a reminder that this planet lacks any sort of vegetation, which is honestly strange sometimes. The characters are illustrated quite well, it was easy to spot the matured children, even if it wasn’t that interesting to follow them around.
Since this is a mini-series, I’ll likely continue to check it out and review it, but I have to say I didn’t like the fact that this issue felt like a transition between the opening and the rest of the story. There was nothing that grabbed me or interested me while reading it and considering how good the first issue was, that’s surprising and not in a good way. We’ll see what the rest of Praxis has for us, but let’s hope it’s more in line with the first issue.
Score: 3/5
Planetoid: Praxis #2
Creator: Ken Garing
Publisher: Image Comics