Jenny Sparks #2 – Tom King, Writer; Jeff Spokes, Artist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Tom King often plays with timelines in his work, but this might just be his most ambitious effort, focusing on a character who represents the 20th century—and then, despite everything, survives it and is forced to face what comes next. This issue opens with a pretty stark depiction of the horrors of 9/11, so people who are triggered by this should be warned—it continues through the issue with scenes at Ground Zero as sparks and everyone around her are confronted with the reality that history has not stopped and new horrors await those entering the 21st century. This story is interspliced with another—one that finds England’s most famous church in flames, and five random individuals being held hostage in a pub by a deranged Captain Atom, who believes himself to be a God with power over life and death—and is determined to prove it with hostages as his plaything.
The choice of Captain Atom as the villain here is a surprising one, and it feels like two issues in he’s going to be the co-lead of this book as much as Jenny is. He’s a character who’s been out of focus for a while, but of course famously he was supposed to become one of the DCU’s biggest villains in Armageddon 2001 before a leak caused the entire plot to be rejiggered. So this is his big villainous coming-out party, and there are scenes here that are terrifying—when he’s menacing, as well as when he tries to be the “Benevolent God” and shows how easy the lives of humans are for him to play with. King’s books are often hard to parse, but this feels like it might be one of his most personal, dealing heavily with the horror of terrorism and the uncertainty of what comes after. This series is definitely not going to be for everyone, but similar to his Rorschach, it feels like it takes place in the world of superheroes but is also very much grounded in ours.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
