Created by: Michael Benaroya and Jeff Cahn
Written by: Jeff Cahn
Art by: Salvador Navarro and Mark Texeira
Colours by: Ifansyah Noor
Letters by: Josh Aitken
Published by: Image
This issue of Red Spike sheds some light on the projects past, as well as showing how Matt and Greg came to be involved with the project. While past events are being explored, Greg is feeling the effects of last issues surgery that has seen an alteration to his Red Spike system being put in place without his knowledge.
The two flashbacks take place 14 years ago and 4 years ago. Matt’s (14 years ago) is much shorter and has seemingly much less impact on his character than the situation that Greg is found in during his flashback. This is somewhat strange, considering what we see happen to Matt when he is just a child. However, Greg is presented as the more conflicted character, whereas Matt seems whiter than white and therefore less interesting.
The problem with Greg is that he is very annoying. I thought that the effects of Red Spike had changed his personality for the worse, but he wasn’t a particularly nice person before hand, making his relationship with Red Spike worker Maggie less believable; he is the sort of mix of bad jokes and bravado that I’d expect most intelligent women to avoid.
The scheming of Moyer and Fairfield and Coughlin, with both looking for control of the Red Spike system, is the most interesting, but I don’t think it is given enough page time in this issue.
The art is a mixed bag, both artists have strong moments and both artists have off moments. Some facial expressions don’t look right and some characters (mainly background) look almost identical. The action is drawn well though.
This was a definite improvement on the first issue as the focus shifted away from set piece action to a more story driven issue. The ending of this issue was an interesting set up for the next and I expect this series could keep improving.
7/10
