Be Not Afraid #2 Review

 

Writer: Jude Ellison S Doyle

Illustrator: Lisandro Estherren

Colorists: Francesco Segala & Gloria Martinelli

Letterer: Simon Bowland

Cover Artists: Reiko Murakami, Tyler Boss & Jenna Cha

Designer: Madison Goyette

Editors: Caroline Butler, Allyson Gronowitz, Elizabeth Brei & Andy Schmidt

Publisher: Boom! Studios

Price: $4.99

Release Date: July 16, 2025

 

On his 17^th birthday, Jordy Rehms makes a man claw out his eyes. Then he watches as the man chews his hand off. Jordy knows he's not Human. Still, he enjoys terrorizing the people in Enoch.

 

His mother once imagined a glorious future. Now, she cannot bear to face tomorrow. When Cora prays for deliverance, a man appears in her kitchen. Is Mr Phim the answer to her prayers? Or will he bring Cora more suffering? Let's grab a Bible, leap into Be Not Afraid #2, and find out!

 

Story

Seventeen years ago, Cora mourned her father. Her friend Cindy grieved for her mother. While Cora's mother grew bitter, Cindy introduced Cora to church. Cora found meaning in religion. But then she went too far. Cora dared to believe that she could speak with God, and he replied.

 

In Be Not Afraid #2, Cora envisions the world as it ought to be. Cora wants to share her vision of divine harmony with others. Instead, her mother locks her inside the house. Anyone who claims God speaks to them is crazy and a menace to society.

 

Jude Ellison S. Doyle intersperses Cora's discussion with her mysterious visitor with glimpses from her past. We discover why Cora found her unnatural pregnancy difficult instead of a blessing. Be Not Afraid #2 tackles the divide between the laity and the clergy. It also reminds us that the Christian Church closed the canon of the Word of God, then zealously rooted out “heretics” who disagreed with the establishment’s decisions. While addressing the way tragedy can tear families apart, the story reminds us of our daily struggles to spread kindness, even if love demands that we punish those who do wrong.

 

Art

Lisandro Estherren provides a window into Cora’s past, revealing the pain that divides mother and daughter. Mr Phim may reason with her. Yet his features seem harsh, and his movements suggest impatience. A vision from Biblical prophecy merges with a glimpse of Cora's home in the valley. Yet, as Cora mentions to Mr Phim, her town seems removed from time in Be Not Afraid #2.

 

Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli adorn scenes of rural life in toned pages. Red adorns the opening scenes with her mother, and Cora's search for a new worldview. Green fills the valley, Cora's initial scene with Mr Phim, and her interview with a priest. While enhancing the mood of these pivotal moments, radiant yellow and white hail warmth, affection, belonging, and divine providence. Yet the visions seem slanted or skewed in Be Not Afraid #2 as if glimpsed not through a window but a funhouse mirror.

 

Simon Bowland places uppercase black letters in white boxes and balloons. The uppercase letters in boxes are more stylized than their cousins, but both are easy to read. Words grow bold for emphasis, while lowered voices receive smaller, lowercase letters. But white words appear in black boxes when everything right in Cora's world suddenly goes wrong. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Cora Rehms faces a difficult decision. The mysterious Mr Phim promises her deliverance from her suffering. But he appeared as miraculously as her son. And he advises actions that clash with Cora’s ethics and belief in Be Not Afraid #2.

 

Rating 9/10

 

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

To refresh your mind of previous events, see my review of Be Not Afraid #1.

Blow Away #1 Review

 

Writer: Zac Thompson

Artist: Nicola Izzo

Colorist: Francesco Segala & Gloria Martinelli

Letterer: D. C. Hopkins

Cover Artists: Annie Wu, Tyler Boss, and Tula Lotay with Dee Cunniffe

Publisher: Boom!

Price: $4.99

Release Date: April 17, 2024

 

Brynne Brautigan traveled to Baffin Island in Canada. Her mission: to capture footage of nesting Red Knots. Alone in the arctic wilderness, her focus wanders. Will Brynne complete her documentary before the helicopter arrives to return her to civilization? Let's bundle up, leap into Blow Away #1, and see what happens!

 

Story

Brynne ventures onto the snow to reposition cameras and change memory cards. Then, she returns to examine the previous day's shots. GEM+ commissioned her to get coverage of the environment. She hunts for a scoop that will make her a star.

 

After forty-plus days alone, Brynne tires of studying her monitors. Yet the clock is ticking in Blow Away #1. Soon, the ice will thaw, and the endangered birds will abandon the area. Brynne dreads calling her producer. So when she checks in late, Matt Reznor gives her a drop-dead date. Then he’s sending the helicopter whether she’s ready or not.

 

With little time remaining, she’s hungry for a great story. So when two hikers appear, Brynne decides to multitask. But isolation and long hours make her careless. Or perhaps she’s just brave. Others have paid the price for her hunger for headlines. This time, Brynne could pay the price for her careless disregard for safety.

 

In Blow Away #1, Zac Thompson transports us to the edge of the world. Brynne spends her days gazing at Mount Asgard. After an encounter with a polar bear, an animal believed by native peoples to serve as an intermediary between Humans and the gods, Brynne spots two climbers. Like brothers, they help each other. Yet, like brothers, they also fight.

 

Brynne senses a mystery. But does she have the time to solve it?

 

Art

Snow assails Brynne, clad in her thick parka. She gazes through sunglasses as she checks her camera equipment. Nicola Izzo captures Mount Asgard's vast size in Blow Away #1. Izzo imbues the snowfields with a sorrowful feeling as Brynne races past crevasses on her snowmobile.

 

Is Brynne wrong about the Red Knots nesting on Mount Asgard? Sixteen images stretch longitudinally across two pages like a photography contact sheet. Two images capture the elusive birds. The remainder only shows the mountain and sled dogs pulling a hunter across the snow. Might the endangered birds be nesting on Mount Odin instead?

 

Inside her squat cabin on stilts, Brynne studies two monitors. Disposable cups of coffee proliferate as she perches on the edge of her chair. Instead of searching for the birds, Brynne studies the climbers. She denotes their personalities from their actions and appearances. The one with long, black hair seems nervous as he climbs. His blond companion, sporting a beard, seems more at home on the steep mountainside.

 

Francesco Segala & Gloria Martinelli color Baffin Island in white, blue, and green. White dominates, as you would expect, amid the constant snowstorms. Yellow, orange, brown, and purple claim cabin interiors, while the colors on her monitors serve as windows to the outside world. Yet red marks its territory in Blow Away #1. One climber wears a red jacket. But we notice it most when blood sprays and covers bodies. Then there’s the trail of red that Brynne follows when she risks her life to help someone in need.

 

D. C. Hopkins slots frail black uppercase letters into white dialogue balloons and narrative boxes. Inflection makes words bold or introduces color changes. Enormous white letters help us hear sounds and the howling wind, while their red cousins accompany a soul in pain.

 

Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Reality and mythology merge as a photographer seeks a killer scoop amid whiteout conditions on the mountain James Bond once skied off in Blow Away #1.

 

Rating 8.6/10

 

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

Indigo Children #1 Review

 

Indigo Children #1 Review

Writers: Curt Pires & Rockwell White

Artist: Alex Diotto

Colorist: Dee Cunniffe

Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover Artists: Alex Diotto; Tyler Boss; Tula Lotay; Jenny Frison

Publisher: Image

Price: $3.99

Release Date: March 29, 2023

 

In the beginning, there was darkness. Then lights appeared. The lights took form and became the glowing eyes of youths across the Egyptian desert. The youths’ feet left the ground, and they floated through the air toward the head of the ancient Sphinx. What happens next? Let’s tune into Indigo Children #1 and find out!

 

Story

Five years earlier, young Alexei boards an airplane. He glimpses a passenger’s past: the pain he suffered during the Chechen War in 1994. His mother notices his reaction and asks what he sensed. He whispers to her. She leaves to speak with a flight attendant. Suddenly a guard points his gun at the man, and the plane explodes. Boom! 

 

 

 

 

Donovan Price is tracking a story. The journalist corresponds online with his source. He travels to Russia. He meets with an aging professor who once knew Alexei. The professor piques his interest without giving him anything concrete to go on. Donovan calls in a favor. He wants to find Alexei: presumably one of the Indigo Children.

 

This double-length debut issue takes readers on a journey from Egypt to an unnamed airport and then to England before finally transporting us to Russia. Curt Pires & Rockwell White clutch the facts against their chests, making it difficult to parse what's happening. The journalist plays a videotape of young Alexei on a VCR. Yet he later claims his source sent him the video via email. The journalist uses a satnav instead of his phone. His cell phone—or his mobile phone, as he's in Europe—looks more like it belongs to the past than the present. Or is it a satellite phone? Initially, I thought the action took place in 1999. Later, I guessed the early 2000s. It wasn't until I Googled something a character mentioned that I realized that "Now," as stated in Indigo Children #1, must mean “Now.” 

 

 

 

Art

Alex Diotto’s simple, direct style gets the job done. While his characters aren't all that expressive, they're not supposed to be. The journalist asks questions. Those he asks--Russians, in this case--refuse to answer him directly. People always sweat when they're nervous. At first, I thought young Alexei was a girl. But then, I didn’t realize he was Russian.

 

Alex’s automobiles and buildings are good-to-impressive. Roads are lines with ink blotches. Bushes are inked-in forms or shapes with dots. Yet every scene provides scale. He portrays faces and bodies consistently. A laptop looks like a laptop. Old Polaroids, a well-used cup and saucer, an unlatched window that swings inward: every detail—including Russian lettering on signs and buildings--sucks us into Donovan’s journey.

 

 

 

 

Dee Cunniffe’s limited color palette enhances Diotto’s rough line art. Color combinations change with the scenes. Yet each combination fits the time, place, characters, and mood seems spot on. Light touches of shading and highlights suggest light sources. The coloring underlines the journalist’s dark journey through a land that does not know freedom.

 

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering conveys mood and intonation in Indigo Children #1. Sometimes symbols suggest a gasp or grunt. Dialogue balloons and attached arrows change shape. Lowered voices shift from uppercase to lowercase letters. I particularly like how he portrays psychic communication and suggests white noise pouring from a radio.  

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Government conspiracies, a hint of Heinlein’s novel Stranger In A Strange Land, and an overt reference to The Truman Show make this an intriguing debut. After two readings, I don’t understand everything in Indigo Children #1, but I welcome learning more.

 

Rating 7.3/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch