Volume 2 of Youth collects the original digital series in print and includes Youth Season 2, chapters 1-4. 
As Dark Horse says, “Six months later. Some of the kids are dead. Some are missing. Some are trying to do better. One thing is for certain: They’re not the only ones with powers, anymore.”
This trade paperback delves deep into the lives of the teen superheroes. Flawed, furious, and F’ed up. Writer Curt Pires (It’s Only Teenage Wasteland, etc) stirs the plot with plenty of pain. Our teens have tragic and dark backstories, and those unresolved ‘more youthful’ emotions keep bubbling to the surface. And then just add a pile of superhero powers to the mix, stand back and watch the fireworks!
With dialogue like “Fine. @#$% this. @#$% you both. Junkie @@$#@.”, you know you’re in for hard-hitting blunt trauma. But it all ties together. Once the reader is numbed to the stunning amount of hostility and swearing, the going gets better. The dialogue flows like a sewer, but it does lead somewhere. The plot boils and thickens nicely.
Alex Diotto’s line art is deceptively simple. What looks like basic line construction, minimal facial features, and uncomplicated backgrounds turns out to enhance the story, not take away. We watch the faces, the unassuming postures, the medium black line outlines of the people, cars, and things. Diotto adds black to move our eye around, directing the visual traffic like a cop. The large blocks of black add weight, density, and sober solidity to the goings on.
Dee Cunniffe colours mostly in flats, defining areas and adding coloured shadows. It’s effective and reinforces the directness, our situational awareness of our surroundings, our mental focus super-trained on the developing drama instead of the pretty pictures.
Micah Myers uses a ‘hand-lettered’ font and unglossed word balloon outlines. Myers’ choice works well here, so when we read the balloons and captions, the ‘voice’ we hear is a personalized one, unvarnished and intimate.
This is an intensely powerful book, keeping nothing back, pulling no gut punches or vicious turning kicks. I got a kick out of it, and you will too!
Dark Horse, Youth Volume 2, $22.99 for 136 pages. Mature content
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