Comic Review: Geiger #2 (Image Comics)

From Image Comics and the Mad Ghost imprint, it’s Geiger #2, where writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank continue their tale of the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Our hero Tariq Gieger had a fast-progressing cancer. So he was prescribed a nasty powerful treatment to battle it. The chemo poison in his system interacted with bombs that went off outside the safe zone, and he became the Glowing Man!

Issue two of this post-apocalyptic adventure kicks off with a motorcycle ride to Vegas. It’s still “Party Vegas”, as in ‘what happens, stays in Vegas’, but it has evolved. Or devolved, depending.

Johns and Frank take the potentially sorry tale of survival after the fallout, and spin the wheel, throwing new concepts into the pool to swim with the sharks and slings and arrows of medieval fortune. It’s strongly worded, soundly rendered adventure, thoughtfully stirred and shaken for our enjoyment. And when the wait staff at one Vegas Casino steal something valuable from some tough customers, it’s all hell, all damnation, and all bets are off!

I love this book, it’s fresh, radioactive, active in the kinetic sense, sensible in the narrative, challenging in its destruction and manipulation of stereotypes. Check it out, it’s metric, it’s metallic, it’s magnetic!

Fabulous renderings by Gary Frank, fully believable fictional colour by Brad Anderson, solid block letters by rock solid Rob Leigh.

Image, Geiger #2, $3.99 for 24 pages of story content. Teen+