By Ashley Gibbs

Things are getting pretty complicated for Sam in Samaritan Veritas #2. She’s on a mission to take down the President of the United States and end his corruption, but she’s also a wanted criminal knee-deep in the dark and unspeakable parts of the internet. Not above breaking laws to complete her revenge plot she’s hacking, kidnapping and plotting her way to success. Or so she thinks. The government isn’t as stupid as she imagines and they’re hot on her tail. While Sam is willing to go down in a blaze of glory to complete her objective she can’t do so just yet, the game of cat-and-mouse continues.

Sam thinks she’s in a good position, that she’s covered her tracks and is smarter than those she’s working against. She comes off as rather cocky until the bullets start flying at her head throwing a wrench into her plan and sending her on the run again, but she always seems to have a back-up. While the story focused on Sam trying to kidnap a wealthy CEO with ties to the President, I found myself most interested in the layers of espionage. We have Sam and her mission, the government sending an assassin after her, Sam’s friend Dwayne trying to look out for her but also keep his job and other twists and turns all happening at once. There are more wheels turning as well, on a more technical level that the author explains in the final pages, like “rare earth metals” that are mentioned in the story. Some of these notes aren’t vital to the story to understand it, but they’re very interesting tidbits that make for better world-building.

The art in this book reminds me of an action movie, everyone is moving, and the action is quick and fast-paced. I like how the panels are laid out; it makes it easy for the eye to follow what’s happening, especially as quite a few things go down at once. The colors are great and work well with the story; there is also a distinct shift in the time of day as everything is happening. From morning to sunset and ending in the dark of night, it helps things flow organically and aids the pacing. I’m still not a fan of the font choice for Sam’s inner dialog, but this is a personal nitpick and not a huge deal.

While the idea of a revenge plot is rather simple, I won’t deny that Samaritan Veritas #2 is more than that and can be complicated. There are different players all with different motives, and I can only hope that this expanded upon, while I support Sam at the moment I don’t want everything to be too easy for her and I also wouldn’t mind if she had more flaws though right now it would seem her cockiness is a big one. This is a world where things aren’t as simple as “good and evil, ” and while the government seems to be overall big bad, ’d like to see some more depth and gray areas. However, I enjoyed reading this issue and felt the action was a nice change of pace from what I normally like.

Score: 5/5

Samaritan Veritas #2
Writer: Matt Hawkins
Artist: Atilio Rojo
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Publisher: Top Cow/Image