Lots of intriguing things happen in this second issue of UFOlogy. Creepy aliens keeping watch over Becky, spiral characters coming out of ooze, strange tattoos, and giant blinking eyeballs. That just sounds like a combination for greatness. To start from the beginning, the comic revolves around two teenagers. Becky just a senior chick who stumbles into the wrong thing, wrong time deal. And Malcolm who helps his father search for alien life every night. Both have seemingly normal lives until one night Becky literally runs into an alien. This dude is weird and starts to torch the house that everyone is in. Malcolm comes in time to help Becky and get her the care she needs. Now the town is concerned with the recent events and it seems that Becky knows her story will not be understood. Honestly, no one is really bothering her about it. They just want her to get some rest, but it is unusual that her burn mark on her face is a spiral. Malcolm knows something is up and may be the only person Becky can talk to. But again, these two aren’t really friends so building their relationship and trust will take some time. As for now, Becky is in the hospital trying to recover and Malcolm takes on the hunt for the truth.
Other than that there are a lot of creepers in this issue. Some alien keeps watching over Becky in all sorts of ways. Becky seems to be handling it with ease, but I would be freaking out. I don’t know if this is part of her personality, but it would be a weird way to introduce us to it. So it all just kind of seems lazy. Plus for a moment let’s go back to the spiral thing. It isn’t a “hey your burn sort of looks like a spiral or ring.” It’s a “Shit man. That looks like some sort of marking.” Again seems lazy.
With issue one, it seemed like the writers had a good flow developing, but with issue #2 that flow has slowed down a bit. I don’t know if it was the addition of other stories or the lack of action, but the dialogue was off. I had to reread some moments to understand who was talking and other moments but it was confusing as to what was happening. Having Malcolm’s father be involved with a new mystery needed to be more clear and why everyone has turned their back on him or acting like they do needed to be cleared up as well. Again, this can all be solved with the next coming issues, so I won’t dwell on it too long. As for now, I wouldn’t jump into the story without reading the first issue. The opener offered a lot more characterization that bounced off of the plot flow as well. So I would sit back and relax for the couple rounds to emerge and get things really going.
I can’t get read off of these writers on a lot of things. Anytime that happens but I still enjoy the story, I usually just sit back and wait. It sucks, but sometimes you just have to wait for things to get into a good place and then you can really dive into the characters. I hope that is the case for UFOlogy because its overall topic is great and the plot has potential so now it is time to take it some place.
Score: 2/5
UFOlogy #2 Writers: James Tynion IV & Noah J. Yuenkel Artist: Matthew Fox Colorist: Adam Metcalfe Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 5/20/15 Format: Mini-Series, Print/Digital