Crocodile Black #2 Review

Crocodile Black continues the eerie, skin-crawling story it started in issue #1. With phenomenal art, and deep, non-traditional storytelling, this is a book that horror and crime thriller fans will not want to miss.

We left off last issue with PKJ turning the volume up to 11 in the last pages. Danny goes off the deep end and we see the continuation of that here. We're introduced to new characters in what seems to be an unrelated, which normally would bother me because a lot of stories end up too convoluted when too many characters are introduced too early, but the two storyline are tied together before the end of the issue so I can tell that PKJ is not going to have trouble staying focused here. My one complaint is that I did feel like this issue was a bit more all over the place, which works in a long saga like Warworld, but doesn't in a 5 issue mini. You have to make every page count when you don't get that many.

I think Som is a star in the making. His style reminds me of Marco Checcheto, leaning towards a more realistic style than stylized. The facial expressions that he gives Danny often tell the story of what Danny is feeling and thinking better than any narration could - which, interesting note, there are no narration boxes present. We rely on Som's art to tell us what the characters are feeling based on facial expressions and body language. Patricio Delpeche is growing to be one of my favorite colorists between this and Void Rivals. The colors he uses during Danny's "episodes", we'll call them, are excellent and drive home when something is really going wrong. Again the red lines we see (still not sure what they are) are a nice touch and well done. Becca Carey has a really nice showing here, with part of the story told through an entry in a journal, so we get some great lettering there, but the best letters in the book are at the beginning where a song is playing and the letters are modified to match the creepy vibe of the art, the colors, and the situation. Even though I'm not sure what this has to do with the story, it shows the whole creative team firing on all cylinders.

I think the first issue shocked me a bit more but I'm happy with this continuation so far. I gave this 4 stars after giving issue #1 4.5. Crocodile Black #2 is out this Wednesday June 12th from BOOM! Studios.