Writer: Dan Panosian
Artist: Alessio Avallone
Colorists: Valentina Pinto, Agnese Pozza & Rik Mack
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover Artists: Dan Panosian, Elizabeth Torque & Gabriel Rodríguez
Designer: Grace Park
Editors: Caroline Butler, David Mariotte & Matt Gagnon
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Price: $4.99
Release Date: April 23, 2025
Wendy Darling is engaged. But she wants to complete her manuscript before she marries. Her mother read bedtime stories to her when Wendy was young. Now, she reads the stories she has written to her father.
Peter Pan yearns for excitement. When Tinker Bell suggests that Captain Hook is stealing pelts from the natives, Peter happily investigates. Chief Tiger Lily insists that Captain Hook has given up piracy. Is the Captain a legitimate merchant eyeing retirement? Are Wendy and Peter clinging to their youth instead of embracing change? Let’s grab some fairy dust, leap into The Last Boy #2, and see!
Story
In Dan Panosian’s story, Peter refuses to believe Captain Hook’s story. When he forces the old pirate to walk the plank, Tick-Tock swallows Captain Hook. Peter cannot accept that Captain Hook is dead. He must have arranged this ruse to trick him. Still, the Lost Boys can help him track down the crocodile and discover if Captain Cook still lives.
In England, Wendy’s father is dying. The only thing that brings light to his eyes is Wendy’s stories. But Mary Darling insists Wendy mustn’t read him any more of her fairy tales. Wendy’s brother John has become a doctor. He advises that any undue excitement could kill their father. Instead of delighting him with stories, Wendy must stop being selfish and let her father see his daughter happily married.
In The Last Boy #2, Peter and Wendy's lives are under assault. Their worlds seek to strip away everything that brings them joy. Peter and Wendy must yield to convention or refuse to relinquish their passion.
Art
Alessio Avallone portrays Wendy’s grim reality in The Last Boy #2. While her bedridden father smiles at her, her mother and brothers offer frowns. Michael wears a military uniform, while John braves the rain with his overcoat, top hat, and umbrella. Their world is one of beige, brown, gray, and black. Only faint hints of green emerge from the walls, while planters offer pale greenery and muted red flowers.
Captain Hook’s pale hand is all that emerges from Tick-Tock’s toothy maw. As the crocodile swims away, his green hide links with Peter's eyes and clothes, while the tip of the white feather in Peter’s cap matches the late Captain's clothes and Mr Smee’s cap. Valentina Pinto, Agnese Pozza & Rik Mack lavish greens on Hangman’s Tree and the surrounding forest. Purple and blue fill the skies of Neverland, while a loaded palette enhances one character’s vibrant home.
Jeff Eckleberry conjures uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons and scraps of beige parchment in The Last Boy #2. The words swell, enlarge, and never shrink. Sound effects reveal that the clock inside Tick-Tock takes a licking but keeps on ticking. As they help us hear a thrum of power and clanging metal, a stranger speaks green words into black cloudy balloons, signaling an oncoming storm that may change Neverland forever. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Fairy Tales free a dying man from his grim reality. Tales whispered by a fairy shackle a boy to his preconceptions. While Wendy realizes she no longer belongs in her family home, a new menace threatens to destroy everything Peter holds dear in The Last Boy #2.
Rating 9.6/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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