Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: The Devil Inside Part 2 – The Knotted Rope
Written by: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Penciled by: Darick Robertson
Inked by: Wayne Faucher
Colored by: Avalon’s Matt Milla
Lettered by: VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Last month when I reviewed Nightcrawler #1, I mentioned how I seemingly am the sucker that gets to review all of the X-Books, generally because they are my personal little obsession. It’s a long story that relates to how I got into comic books in the first place, but the X-Books (specifically Uncanny) is near and dear to my heart. The positive is that with all of these various books about individual X-Characters I’m never at a loss for a book. The negative of this is in turn, most of the X-Books that come out are crap.
How is Nightcrawler? Issue one ranked a 6.5 with me for being average with some high points – it’s time to dissect #2.
Story!
Last month, a batch of kids ended up dead with one Haley-Joel Osment looking boy left to tell the tale. The problem is that he’s gone mute and his caretaker Dr. Childs is less than forthcoming with help. It almost seems like he wants Nightcrawler to fail. Hmmmm…
The cliffhanger of last episode involved the one man who might have some answers, a well mannered security guard, getting set on fire with Nightcrawler the only guy who can help. In a well laid out action sequence, Kurt teleports the guard into a nearby lake. Makes sense, water beats fire in any elemental based video game I’ve ever played. This fire though, does jack diddly and Kurt is left with a conundrum.
So Nightcrawler goes and finds the most mystical person he knows. Amanda Sefton, Nightcrawler’s old flame and foster sister, is the Guardian of Limbo and if anyone is going to be able to help out Kurt, it’s her. (He COULD call Doctor Strange, but seriously… it’s a cheap reason to visit an ex-girlfriend) She gives some pointed story motivating tips on how to get the boy to talk.
From here we get more flashes of just what might be going on behind closed doors at Metro-General. The ‘good’ Doctor Childs is more than meets the eye. This is where I have my problem. The story itself isn’t bad, as a matter of fact Nightcrawler gets some of the best dialogue he’s had in years. The issue itself is that story the story is seemingly spoon-fed to us with no twists or turns or anything that makes you have a WANT for the next issue. I’m not saying every comic needs to be Identity Crisis with a jump around every corner, but the first two issues of this book have given me very little food for thought. The only mystery stands as WHAT Dr. Childs is.
Art!
Greg Land is good for a couple of reasons. The biggest is that he not only draws a sexy female pose (see X-Men: The End for a nice cover and a useless comic), but he draws an inspiring Nightcrawler. I’d put this cover on a poster and hang it. No joke. It relates in no way to the internals, but hey.. I’m used to it.
Now Darick Robertson, as I said in my last report, seems to have a love for Nightcrawler. The guy drawing Crawler’s book should. I give that two thumbs up. He seems to have a problem drawing a consistant Amanda, panel to panel she changes looks as if he was using model references, but changed models midway through. Not horrendously so, but definitely noticeable.
Overall!
I’ve eaten my words on two different books with Cable/Deadpool and Alpha Flight, as the second arcs have shown themselves to be leaps and bounds over the first. This title isn’t off to a horrible start, so by the time Aguirre-Sacasa reaches issue #7 this book should be pretty damned good. Then again, I’ve been wrong twice before.
