Comic Book Review – Samurai Jack #2
Samurai Jack #2
Writer: Jim Zub
Artist: Andy Suriano
Colors: Josh Burcham
Samurai Jack is on a journey to the past to thwart the evil shape-shifting master of darkness, Aku, from creating a future filled with evil!
If that premise doesn’t get you excited to read a comic book, well then…I just can’t help you. I can’t give you a history lesson on Samurai Jack, because honestly, I don’t know its history. This is the first Samurai Jack comic I’ve ever read. Of course I had heard of the character, either through Cartoon Network or past comic book iterations, but I was never compelled to give it my full attention. When the title was relaunched last month, my interest was piqued but I failed to buy the first issue due to forgetfulness.
But not this time!
This time around when I saw it I scooped it up and in doing so I was whisked away to a magical land where a Samurai on a journey for the threads of time battled twin Ninja-Cats named “Dis” and “Dat.” And it was glorious. Jim Zub crafts an excellent action/adventure tale that takes us through the perils of Samurai Jacks journey as he comes across a small village. The plot and pacing move pretty swiftly in this issue as the majority of it are action sequences. I really enjoyed the overall feel and focus of the story – it was clear and precise and put you directly into Samurai Jacks shoes. My only hang up was the dialogue. While the captions and voiceovers seemed to carry a serious tone, the dialogue seemed like it was out of a 70’s action movie. It was, well…cartoony. Perhaps this is exactly how Samurai Jack has always been done but as a first time reader it felt disjointed.
The disjointed tone of the book does not bring the quality of this book down as Andy Suriano’s art makes the pages sing. From the opening splash page with a crashed rocket ship, Jack climbing a mountain and the story title “Threads of Time” emerging from the broken cavernous terrain you know you are in for some outspoken art – and you get it. I really got a kick out of the mixture of traditional and abstract panel placements. Some pages are laid out with your typical four or five box panels and some pages have a panel being cut in half by Jack’s sword or a nun-chuck. In either case the story is superbly told through the artistic ebb and flow of each panel on each page. Having the art combined with Josh Burcham’s colors creates an artistic bomb that explodes on your eyeballs! The color pallet and direction provide this book with an aura of emotion. Some pages have a smooth colorful transition of reds and oranges and others have splattered blues and purples. The colors used throughout Samurai Jack #2 only help to enhance the mood and energy of the story being told.
Overall, Samurai Jack #2 is a solid comic book with a lot going for it. Fans of this character have to be delighted with this book and new readers, such as myself, have plenty of reasons to stick around.
Review Score:Â 6 (out of 7)
Thoughts? Leave a comment or find me on twitter (@theprophetlen)
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