There are Chechnyan crash survivors in Alaska, and they are dangerous. It’s Survival #2, from Dark Horse, and it’s a puzzling book to be sure. So yes, crash survivors who are vampires, and who are carting around a huge white monster wolf. And these strange plane-crash-mates are hunting for humans who are also wandering around Alaska. Let’s wander through the wreckage too, shall we?
It’s a strange situation indeed. Having missed the first issue, which described Emma Reed returning to her Alaskan hometown ‘from away’, we readers are spooked and disoriented as we begin issue two. Emma and her brother grew up with a ’survivor’ mentality, as their dad drilled survivor behaviors into them. So they are now using that instinct to run and hide. To survive.
Writer Sean Lewis mixes back story with present-day chilly Alaska, as we pass from one encampment to another. Hunter and prey. It’s back and forth in time and space, while we attempt to ‘right’ ourselves and brush away the confusion. It’s a lot, and unfortunately, the storyline construction gets in the way of what could be a good supernatural thriller. Characters pop into scenes out of nowhere and don’t introduce themselves. How rude!
The artwork by Bryndon Everett serves the story well, with plenty of environmental vistas, nicely rendered dramatic figures, and smooth visual transitions between scenes. Colourist Natalie Barahona helps us feel ’northern’, with the blues, the bleak pale light, the moonlit night scenes. Lettering is by Ed Dukeshire, and editor is Brett Israel.
This title has promise, but we need to feel less twisted around in our chairs, less tired from the hardscrabble to decode the goings on.
Dark Horse, Survival #2, $3.99 for 25 pages of content.
Newsdesk