I too am slightly disappointed with this issue.
Though the art of Frid improved dramatically, and Selby is very well done throughout, neither the art nor the story were as compelling as in the first issue.
[spoiler]The problem begins on the second page with the text, more specifically Roger's dialogue:
"Don't act innocent with me, boy. You've played your last prank."
The first thing that struck me with this dialogue was the fact that I could never recall Roger calling David "boy" when addressing him. Perhaps he did, but it didn't sound very much like something Louis Edmonds would say as Roger. The dialogue gets weaker from that point on, with Elizabeth doing a lot of worrying and whining. While she did do a little of this on the original show, it was nowhere near the extent that we get in these pages. The weak dialogue continues on the third page with Barnabas proclaiming to Julia, "Good God... I think you may be right." It just doesn't sound like Barnabas. These are just a few examples where the dialogue and characters are compromised to move the story along. After all, this is a comic book, and this is how comic characters speak. But it's not how these characters speak, at least not in the first issue or in the series. I really would have liked to have seen the more realistic dialogue from Issue 1 continue - even if its meant delaying the progression of the story.
Fortunately, we get a lot more Quentin in this issue. And his dialogue is believable. You can hear Selby saying these things, though I don't think we'd ever get such diverse extremes from the Quentin character on a traditional episode of the show. This Quentin seems to be a materialization of all of the previous incarnations of the character (to the extreme). But that is okay, as Quentin is really enjoyable when he is very angry or very sardonic. I am just not used to both extremes happening within a few moments of each other.
The highlight of the comic comes when we have the werewolf transformation. It is just beautifully done, and the image of werewolf is really amazing. Like tragic bat points out, we don't know if this transformation actually happened, and that makes it all the more amazing in my mind.
Over all, there was a little too much going on for the amount of pages we had - and the fact that the whole family was in on this seemed to be a bit of a sellout. Why did they all have to share the same dark secret? Why couldn't they each have had their own, secrets that would be revealed over time? It almost read like a Leviathan story sent into overdrive. It seemed rushed, and the final payoff really wasn't all that rewarding. I just hope that now that Angelique is back, it will return to the style of storytelling we saw in Issue 1, the much stronger, more consistent, character-driven narration. And that this series does not give into the traditional comic format and continues to try and mimic, as much as possible, the feel of the original series through well-paced storytelling and strong dialogue for the characters.
Don't get me wrong, I still very much enjoyed this issue, and am definitely devoted to this series. I just felt a little let down after an amazing first issue. I am going to continue to invest in this continuation of the original series, as I feel it has the potential to be the closest thing we'll ever get to a direct sequel - plus the artwork of Collinwood alone is worth the 3.99 price tag!
[/spoiler]
Final thoughts:
In this issue, the bartender resembles Don Briscoe, doesn't he?
I may have missed this earlier, but the first four issues are being collected in this:
http://dynamite.net/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C160690275XAnd it's touting the fact that the comic book source is now a major motion picture! Exciting, no?
![[8_2_59]](http://www.dsboards.com/SMF/Smileys/classic/8_2_59.gif "Rockettes Smileys")
