The Fuse Vol #2 (Gridlock)
Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Justin Greenwood
Image Comics
Fuse Vol #1 was one of those pleasant surprises.
A police procedural on a space station, it did have a few shortcomings, in particular not enough of the space station being part of the story, but it was still a good read.
Good enough to get me to Vol #2.
This is a step up.
We have illegal racing of ’space bikes’ across the outer array of the station.
We get an inside look into the slum area of the large station, an area left to the drug users and dealers.
We find there are political activists, thus wanting independence for the station. The connection is woven into the storyline neatly, and at volume end we see it is going to be a much bigger part of things moving forward.
The dynamic between Russian veteran Sgt. Klem Ristovych and recently arrived from earth (Vol #1) Ralph Dietrich continues.
On the surface it looks like Dietrich is growing on his veteran partner with greater respect showing.
But Ristovych hasn’t survived as a tough cop without being wary, and she is starting to smell a rat in her world. That will be a storyline as the story moves forward to its next case arc.
Lots going on in this volume with most of it being very positive in terms of growing this title.
This one is at least a level better than the earlier volume, and takes it closer to making a list of ‘great’ titles.
Velvet Vol #2 The Secret Lives of Dead Men
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Steve Epting
Image Comics
Velvet Templeton, once as good a field operative as there was in the spy game, is still on the run trying to clear her name in Velvet Vol #2 The Secret Lives of Dead Men. The TPB collects issues #6 - #10 of the ongoing series, and we find Velvet now back in ‘the game’ after years behind a desk.
She got curious, and she was framed because of it.
Writer Ed Brubaker cranks up both the action and the intrigue with this run. Everything Velvet thought she knew, even about her own past, may well have been a mirage, a lie, part of a plot years in the making.
When I reviewed #1 I referenced the TV series Legends, and this one makes that comparison even more relevant.
Damian Lake is introduced late in this book. He will obviously become an integral part of the story moving forward, but he is one place Brubaker forced things for me.
Lake has been locked away in an asylum for years. Drugged rather than killed for fear secret files might surface should he expire, which in itself is a rather over-used plot line in such books.
But Brubaker pushes it even farther. Lake orchestrates his escape from a train, manages to have dozens of police and agents on the train, and scouring the countryside at the precise spot Velvet escapes, exacts a revenge plait and escapes to London, all after years in a cell.
If he was that masterful he would have had an escape plan years early I would have thought. The whole sequence was a bit forced, a bit over-played, and it detracted from the story as a result.
Still Velvet is a good read, but not one of Brubaker’s best.
