News from the Fallout #2 Review

 

Writer: Chris Condon

Artist: Jeffrey Alan Love

Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Designer: Michael Tivey

Cover Artists: Jeffrey Alan Love & Leslie Herman

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 6, 2025

 

The personnel at Gaines Army Base have an informer in their midst. Private Otis L Fallows has sent a complaint to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He alleges that General Sheridan P McCoy has grown unstable and obsessed with a porous black rock found at the secret installation. But before the Pentagon can act on the Private's report, General McCoy accelerates Operation Petrify. Will the General kill everyone at Gaines Army Base? And will he do when he learns that Private Fallows is a whistle-blower? Let's grab our gas masks, leap into News from the Fallout #2, and see!

 

Story

General McCoy wanted to test the effects of his new bomb. He inspired such obedience in his troops that they stood and watched as ash fell around them. Private Russo made an angel in the red snow. But when the corporal ordered him to rise, energy arced from Russo to his superior.

 

Wary of the fallout, Private Otis L Fallows kept his distance from the others and wore his gas mask. He fled the army of petrified patriots in a jeep. In News from the Fallout #2, Private Fallows stands inside Old Joe’s in Sherman, Nevada. The patrons don't understand his urgency to board up the windows and barricade the door. Nor do they have any reason to trust him. Fallows shot two people outside before he entered. The Private makes demands while waving a gun. Although Gaines Army Base is only two miles away, the service members ignore the nearby town.

 

Chris Condon's story confronts our doubts and skepticism about things outside our experience. It also contrasts the environment at the Army base with small-town life. Some of the residents live there because they encountered disappointments in larger communities. Rob, once known as Mad Rob Collins, comes under the spotlight in News From The Fallout #2. He clutches onto his past, missing opportunities to enrich his present. Rob puts down anyone who threatens his independence. But amid the leisurely atmosphere of the diner, where the worst thing you can do is anger Joe, Rob will realize that he has taken for granted what he should have cherished.

 

Art

Jeffrey Alan Love fills the Nevada air with choking dust. Silhouettes interact like shadow puppets, waiving guns, smoking cigarettes, and threatening to refill a customer's coffee cup. Old Joe smokes a pipe. Charlie observes the diners through glasses. Rob's profile is all sharp angles and straight lines. Yet views from the front or back reveal the former boxer's cauliflower ears. Irene has a diminutive nose and hoop earrings. After he removes his gas mask, Private Fallows loses his distinctiveness and seemingly any authority in Old Joe’s diner.

 

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou fills roughly drawn white balloons and clouds with bold uppercase letters. The letters darken further for intonation and enlarge for volume. Small lowercase letters accompany lowered voices, while white lines replace arrows. Boxes showcase off-panel dialogue, while a box above a toothy face slowly melts. Sound effects accompany petrifying conversions, roaring engines, howling, and gunfire as Private Fallows’ fellows converge on Old Joe’s diner.

 

Special features help flesh out the characters and setting in News from the Fallout #2. The poster, news report, town newsletter, and a personal letter illuminate Mad Rob Collins' fall from grace and spotlight another local. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

The United States military tested weapons of mass destruction without realizing how they would affect nearby service members and civilians. News from the Fallout #2 reminds us to question dangerous practices, and likens failing to appreciate the people in our lives to zombies.

 

Rating 8.8/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.