Red Before Black #2 Review

 

Writer: Stephanie Phillips

Artist: Goran Sudžuka

Colorist: Ive Svorcina

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

Cover Artists: Goran Sudžuka & Ive Svorcina; Dave Johnson; Eduardo Risso

Design: Becca Carey & Grace Park

Editors: Maya Bollinger, Eric Harburn, Bryce Carlson & Matt Gagnon

Publisher: Boom!

Price: $4.99

Release Date: September 11, 2024

 

Charles Lamb got Val out of prison. The FBI agent wants her to take down a drug dealer. Val tries to join Miles’ organization, but the price of admission is killing double-crossing Leo. Charles urges Val to consider the bigger picture. But when Val gets close, she helps Leo escape her pursuers instead of killing her. Can Charles convince Val to murder Leo and become Miles' employee? Or will Charles have to send Val back to prison? Let's leap into Red Before Black #2 and find out!

 

Story

Charles Lamb wants Miles Warren. Or, more accurately, he wants to dismantle Miles' operation. Miles is in bed with other mob bosses. The Albino Alligator may operate in the black, but Miles also profits from drugs, extortion, and weapons. Charles can arrest Miles, but the organization would just reorganize. So, Charles gets Val out of prison. He promises to expunge Val's criminal record if she helps him dismantle the syndicate. But Charles likes to keep his hands clean. Can Val count on him to clear her name if she kills Leo?

 

In Red Before Black #2, Val walks into Jimmy's diner. Leo waves her over to her table. Leo may not know how to spell entrepreneur, but she does her homework. That’s why Leo had a truck waiting to crash through Danny’s office when he tried to steal her cocaine. As for why Val would save her from Danny’s bouncers in the Pulp nightclub, Leo guesses that Val is conflicted about killing her. She can use that to her advantage in keeping Val off her game.

 

Like Leo, Miles wasn't born yesterday. Miles tells Elliot to check her out. Val rejected Elliot’s advances at the Albino Alligator, so he'll cry alligator tears if he discredits her. And one of his informers is a cheeky guy who risks injury and worse by testing others’ knowledge of Spanish.

 

Stephanie Phillips packs Red Before Black #2 with complex situations and characters. But the most conflicted character is Val. The military taught Val to eliminate threats, but her hair trigger got her dishonorably discharged. Perhaps that also landed her in the pokey. Still, the veteran seems more inclined to save lives than take them. And a memory slithers through her conscious mind. It springs up to bite her when danger threatens. The serpent in the Garden of Eden may not have been a coral snake, but the venomous reptile hurt someone Val cared about. The memory plagues her. What might Val’s life be like if she could forget it?

 

Art

Goran Sudžuka opens Red Before Black #2 with Val taking a shower. No one attacks her with a knife (or a banana!) Still, cries for help intrude on her quiet reverie as Val remembers charging through tropical foliage. When she leaves the room and walks down the tile-lined hall, she spies three psychos interrupting an inmate's shower in another room. Val's actions bring a splash of red on the white tile and land her in isolation. Charles Lamb interrupts her solitary staycation. As he leans forward to show her his cellphone, the camera angle transforms the window behind him into a skylight.

 

Compared with the dark prison cell and the monochromatic shower rooms, Ive Svorcina opens Val's visit to Jimmy's diner with cheery colors. Green palm trees reflect off Val's gold rim mirror shades. Val removes her green jacket and trudges into Jimmy's in her white tank top, baggy green pants, and black lace-up boots. Leo waves to her across the beige, orange, and green 50s diner. Clad in a black mesh top over a black bra, Leo digs into her pancakes. Her silver earrings and piercings sparkle as she smiles. When Leo rises to leave a tip, she displays her ripped black leggings and short blue jean cutoffs. But all too soon, red branches and leaves beckon in Red Before Black #2. A red, black, and yellow figure slithers through tall green grasses, welcoming Val to a surreal jungle.

 

Tom Napolitano’s large black letters in dialogue balloons and narrative boxes are easy to read and follow. Letters embolden for emphasis and fade for lowered volume. Stately colored letters locate us in time and space and comment on characters and actions. Vibrant sound effects enhance a shower-room takedown and a rousing finale that may condemn younger diners to months of therapy. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Forced to commit murder, Val finds it more difficult than shooting first (or second!) in a Mos Eisley cantina. Packed with humor, complex themes, and an otherworldly mystery, Red Before Black #2 will leave readers hanging.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For more covers see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.