The Terrifics #2 – Jeff Lemire, Writer; Ivan Reis, Jose Luis, Pencillers; Vincente Cifuentes, Jordi Tarragona, Inkers; Marcelo Maiolo, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 9/10
Corrina: A Blast
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Ray: The art troubles for New Age of DC Heroes continues, as Ivan Reis has to get a relief artist in Jose Luis for the back quarter of The Terrifics #2. The good news is, the art as a whole remains strong, and Jeff Lemire’s Kirby-esque adventure tale featuring four oddball DC heroes remains far and away the best thing to come out of this line. She was only introduced briefly at the end of last issue, but Phantom Girl is easily the star of this issue. She’s not Tinya Wazzo, the famous Phantom Girl, but a new character – Linnya, a girl who was trapped in the Dark Multiverse after her family’s ship was caught in a cosmic storm, leaving her alone in a violent, dangerous place where she was trapped in phantom form. The issue doesn’t lean too heavily on her trauma, but the descriptions of what she experienced are very disturbing and lend some real emotional weight to the issue. Tom Strong, who got a lot of hype prior to launch, surprisingly doesn’t appear beyond a repeat of his hologram from the last issue.
While Phantom Girl is the heart of this issue, the other three members of the team don’t quite get along. Mr. Terrific is arrogant science guy, Metamorpho is gruff and has no time for his nonsense, and Plastic Man is…Plastic Man. He’s funny, but the other characters don’t quite find him so much. There’s a reason for this, though, and it’s going to be made a lot clearer by an odd cosmic reaction that the four of them undergo. That’s around the time that the giant cosmic being that they’re on starts to wake up, setting up a high-intensity chase segment as they attempt to get out of the Dark Multiverse alive. I described this series as Kirby-esque before, and this issue really leans into it, with a cosmic climax that shows off the scope and scale of the DCU. The heroes barely escape alive, but it soon becomes clear that Phantom Girl’s time in the Dark Multiverse has left her changed – and the other heroes may not be rid of each other that quickly. This is the kind of story we don’t see all that much of anymore, and it’s also the only one of these new titles that has a very distinct identity. I can’t wait to read more.
Corrina: I thought, at first, that we’d spend time in the Negative Zone, er, the Dark Multiverse but, nope, yay, our heroes get home in just the second issue. All’s well and then…not so well, because Lemire reveals why this team should stick together:
Because it can’t literally separate from each other. It’s the superhero equivalent of being handcuffed without access to the key and, given what Lemire has done so far, this should be a total blast.
What amazes me is how quickly he’s made each of the characters distinctive. Michael Holt can be distant and patronizing but also brave and compassionate. Metamorpho is a hothead but stalwart. Plastic Man does what he does, which is his skewed way of looking at the world. Linnya, well, we’re not sure of her yet, especially since we can’t be sure she’s telling the truth. So she’s the wild card. And you can bet I was examining those flashback scenes closely for hints of how Linnya might be relations to Tinya Wazzo/Phantom Girl, especially for some sign that LInnya’s parents might be Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy. The ship was colored with Ultra Boy’s costume colors but that did not look like Jo Nah as Linnya’s father. Ah, well.
In any case, this book is a head rush, start to finish.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
Thanks for the review. Going to have to pick the first 2 issues up!