By Ashley Gibbs

After issue zero and one of this series I was worried going into Sheena #2 and while previous issues with pacing and artwork still remain, the story is moving somewhere and Sheena is given a character to play off of which helps a lot. Our jungle queen is on a mission to find a missing surveyor, or as she says it “sir veyor,” and bring him safely home to protect her village from mercenaries. Of course this is easier said than done and this book mixed a bit of big business machinations with the wonders of nature. Sheena gets to show off her skills and connection with the jungle and the animals that live in it and while the action is limited it was still a decent read.

Sheena finds a college student named Marciano whom she believes to be the missing surveyor, after three pages of miscommunication we learn that he’s working against the bad guys and the drones that Sheena has been shooting down were his. Most of the issue is spent with them traveling through the jungle and chatting, though while Marciano seems a tad bit more open to Sheena’s ways she reminds guarded the whole time. This new character adds something that was needed, someone for Sheena to interact with instead of talking to herself. Having a character entirely alone and only experiencing things through them can be a good storytelling mechanism but in this context, it fell flat. While the addition of Marciano fixes this, the pacing is still slow as they become dueling exposition dumps -most of the walking is really just them throwing information at readers. Interestingly enough, Sheena divulges she has supernatural powers. She doesn’t know why and doesn’t care but hopefully this mystery will be solved down the road. Another revelation is that multiple people are interested in Sheena’s jungle. Will she remain in her home for the whole run or venture into man’s world? Sheena is still a rather bland character, only caring about her village and Mother Nature, but hopefully interacting with different people will give her more character development.

Sadly, while the story may be gaining legs the artwork is not. This issue has four different covers, one is a cosplay shoot and two are beautiful guest art, but the fourth reflects the actual art in the book. If you were to buy this title solely on some of the other covers you might expect the insides to be as lovely but sadly, they are not. Sheena suffers from randomly occurring man-face, weird proportions, and awkward poses... it’s a hot mess. Marciano fares somewhat better in the artwork department, suffering mainly from odd posing and the occasional facial expression but Sheena having so many issues makes it seem like the artist doesn’t know how to draw women; especially pin-up girls. If the story hadn’t gotten a little better the artwork alone would have deterred me from ever reading issue three, but the writing has improved so the art must be tolerated. The artwork does have its good points, the animals look good as well as the scenery and the colors fit very naturally.

So far I’m not impressed or engaged with this series but Sheena #2 is better than its predecessors and shows a slight bit of hope. Since the story is moving so slowly, new readers can easily grab this issue and quickly get caught up to speed. Sheena is a legacy character and despite being a sex symbol she is also a powerful and devoted to her cause. This new incarnation has a lot to live up to and while it’s off to a bumpy start there is still hope for a comeback once all the pieces come together.

Score: 3/5

Writers: Marguerite Bennett, Christina Trujillo
Artists: Moritat, Dimi Macheras
Colors: Moritat, Casey Silver
Letters: Thomas Napolitano
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment