By Chris Tresson
This week sees the release of the second issue of DC Comics's Raven, a title I have reviewed previously and enjoyed purely based on the fact I knew it’d get better with time... I had a little think about it some more once I'd read this issue and I think I seem to enjoy the miniseries DC put out more than the majority of their ongoing titles, they seem to me to be of a higher quality (that's an expert opinion, because I pull at least three quarters of what DC puts out. Honest.) Let's jump in and see what I thought...
This issue of Raven is like what I’d want the majority of DC’s books to be. There’s emotion, humour, and some high stakes superhero type stuff that makes this book stand head and shoulders above anything else that’s out right now. Everyone on superhero books should take note and look to this creative team for how to do superheroes. Page after page, this thing is interesting, gripping and my only complaint about it would be that it ended too soon.
In the hands of her creator, Raven is a character with a lot of depth and she really shines through as a character that I think a lot of young girls (and dudes for that matter) can look up to. Wolfman's ability to write the ‘angsty teenage outcast’ character well is absolutely on show in this series. This is peak Wolfman. The kind of Marv Wolfman I've enjoyed reading for many years and will hopefully continue to enjoy for many more. His achievements in comics and his ability to tell a story are a credit to him. He's done so much in his time as a writer and he's inspired me with his words on countless occasions. I think I might have mentioned that he's one of my favorite writers when I reviewed the last issue of this title but if I didn't, I kinda just did... haha.
The quality of the art hasn't dropped at all from the first issue and artist Alisson Borges is really impressing me with his work. Again, there are some fantastic panels in here, great layouts and overall, there's a feeling that this artist could draw this character for longer than six issues and I wouldn't get bored of it. Really nice stuff and with colorist Blond's palette and chosen color scheme for the book, the finished art looks fantastic. The color work really is the cherry on top of this already impressive package. Lovely stuff all ‘round.
So, overall I really liked the issue and it's safe to say that I will be seeing this miniseries through to completion. I knew it would pick up after issue one, good stories like this usually do. With what I've read so far, I'd really like to see this creative team transfer to one of DC's Rebirth Titans titles or have DC create a title where they can use Titans characters... Or just make Raven an ongoing, haha. Anyways, that's my review. Go check it out for yourself and hopefully the sales numbers will be high enough to get this team on a different title together or push this series into an ongoing.
Score: 5/5
Raven #2
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Alisson Borges
Colorist: Blond
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99