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.

Red Before Black #1 Review

 

Writer: Stephanie Phillips

Artist: Goran Sudžuka

Colorist: Ive Svorcina

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

Cover Artists: Goran Sudžuka & Ive Svorcina; Dave Johnson; Dani & Brad Simpson; Cliff Chiang; Tony Fejzula; Sajad Shah

Publisher: Boom!

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 7, 2024

 

Val needs a job. So, she heads to the Albino Alligator. Val asks for Miles, the owner of the Miami bar. Instead, she gets Elliot. When the man chats her up, Val declines, but he won’t take no for an answer. Who will rescue Val? Or how might she get out of this sticky situation? Let’s leap into Red Before Black #1 and find out!

 

Story

Val isn't afraid to let her feelings show. Elliot's ego prompts him to assert his manhood. Thankfully, Miles’ arrival prevents Val from separating Elliot from his manhood. (Don’t just phone home, Elliot. Go home!) It’s been eight years since Miles heard from Val. Part of him rejoices in the reunion. But mostly, he’s worried. Val can be trouble. As for working at the bar, his premiums wouldn’t cover it.

 

Val isn’t interested in pouring drinks. She wants to do things not covered by typical insurance plans. Miles is not wild about her joining his operation. There are other people on his team to consider. Val's appetite for destruction could bring them unwarranted attention.

 

In Red Before Black #1, Stephanie Phillips reminds us that many veterans find adjusting to civilian life difficult. Val just got out of prison. She wants to get back on her feet again. But the military taught her to react to danger with deadly force. Becoming an enforcer in Miles’ illegal drug operation fits her skill set. He’s not sure he can work with her. He’s not sure he wants to try. But when Val suggests a way to prove her worth, he can’t say no. Two of his people are dead. Another person stole from him. Miles needs to assert his authority on the streets and fast!

 

Red Before Black #1 tackles weighty topics like post-traumatic stress disorder, the plight of the veteran, the abuse of power, and the link between swinging nightlife and illegal drugs. Miles seems like a good man. Yet he preys upon the weakminded who believe they can’t relax and have a good time without taking dangerous and addictive substances. Stephanie Phillips keeps the story light with humorous introductions, relatable characters, and Big Screen spectacle. The final act of this thirty-page story flips your perceptions and makes you wonder how Val will get out of the extraordinary mess she is in.

 

Art

Goran Sudžuka opens the story in the past by focusing on a snake. A silhouette spots the snake slithering over a body in the swamp before a black foot squashes it. Sudžuka rings in the present with a dark hooded figure waiting for a dark car to pass, then crossing the street in the rain. Straight lines reveal a well-ordered bar with plank timber floors, a pool table, and shelves of bottles interspersed with framed photographs. Miles breezes into the classy, respectable-looking establishment, carrying an umbrella while his patrons would likely rely on their jackets to keep them dry. Val's guarded expression and appearance evoke an older sister with dark secrets. Miles looks fun, hip, optimistic, and respectable.

 

Ive Svorcina paints the evening sky blue in Red Before Black #1. The red and green on Elliot’s shirt distinguish him from the others in Miles’ brown and yellow bar. Val’s darker green and brown clothes hint at her violent past. The red neon Albino Alligator contrasts with the glowing pink neon sign in the swinging Pulp nightclub. Orange and brown define Danny’s office, while yellow energizes Leo’s confrontation with Danny in the manager’s office. Yet none of that compares with a red and green flashback that links a violent act with a flashback in the swamp and reminds us of Val’s earlier confrontation with Elliot.

 

Tom Napolitano makes his large black letters in white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes easy to read and follow. The stately pink letters that alert us to the locale echo the glowing neon signs atop the buildings lining the rain-soaked street. Stately yellow letters form tongue-in-cheek introductions. Shocking giant orange letters turn the tables on Danny, even if Leo doesn’t say, “I’ll be back,” while pink music notes mosey through the dancers in the pink nightclub. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

A childhood rhyme beginning doesn't lead to a fairy tale ending for Val when her life choices force her to endanger friendships old and new in the crime thriller Red Before Black #1.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.