Kosher Mafia #2 Review

Last issue we left off with Ephraim Gold and Howard Bercowicz teaming up to take on the German American Bund. A quick recap, Ephraim brought the rise of anti Jewish agression by German Americans in Cleveland to the attention of the Jewish mob, also known as The Kosher Nostra. They not only brushed him off but tried to have him killed by their enforcer Ephraim Gold. Luckily for Howard, Ephraim is equally suspicious of what's going on with the German American Bund and so their team-up takes off. Not something I saw coming, but a cool surprise and an exciting way to start the story!

In this issue, Howard and Ephraim start investigating the German Americans - by first kidnapping one of them to get more information. A lot of the story here shows the character differences between Howard and Ephraim - which is exactly what I wanted from this after reading issue #1. In some ways the differences are shown directly in how they work together, but perhaps more interestingly it shows some of the ways they handle situations both similarly and differently. Writer David Hazan is crafting a really excellent duality of these two characters, and continues what he started in issue #1 - showing us that these two are definitely more alike than they think. Apart from the character work, I definitely like the reflection here on battling against oppression. Ephraim says that the Kosher Nostra think the battle is over because they're in a position of power. That is such an easy trap to fall into in real life - where once you've “made it”, you forget to turn around and pull your fellow man up the ladder to join you.

This was another great issue in regards to the  art by Sami Kivela. I really liked his work in issue 1 and thought that it really added to the feel of the story. This is not a particularly positive story - and I think a lot of times books can fall into the trap of using a more depressing art style to match the tone of the book. But Kivela shows you can use this cartoon style with a more violent and somewhat bleak story. This is like mixing patterns in clothing. Often times it's not a good idea, but it takes something special to pull it off. Kivela provides that something special here. And funnily enough I was reading a Spider-man book recently that made me think of this book. I was reading it and felt overwhelmed with how much was going on with the art and it reminded me that I had criticized the background from Kivela in issue 1 of this series. I think I'd like to take that back as I can see it's a good way to focus the attention to the characters. 

I appreciated Ellie Wright's colors last month and they were spot on again here. I also mentioned Wright in the criticism of the backgrounds in issue 1, so would also like to take back that criticism as well. I like how uses a color pallete that is a bit more cartoon-y but doesn't sacrifice good shading in the process. I liked the more grainy texture that she took with this as it gives me that historical feel that the story is going for.

Bowland's letters were a bit of a mixed bag for me. While I appreciated some creativity he used with making the Nazi who was extremely injured use speech bubbles that were a bit more wavy, all of his speech bubbles and sound effects seem pasted on top of the art rather than blended in. This takes me out of the reading experience quite a bit. I did however, appreciate that he used smaller gray text when Ephraim and Howard were whispering - that was a nice touch.

Overall, an extremely solid second issue. This kept pace with issue 1 and I'm just as invested as I was before. I gave this one 4 stars out of 5 on League of Comic Geeks, so this is definitely worth your time to check out! Kosher Mafia #2 from Mad Cave Studios is in stores now!