Shadowhawk Reviews @ImageComics Velvet #2

Here is today's Guest Review by Abhinav Jain from Shadowhawk's Shade, The Founding Fields, and Just Beyond Infinity, for Image Comics' Velvet #2. I have also added my rating after each review. If you have any questions about my rating or want to discuss anything just leave me a comment.

See the Review Rating Overview page for more information on how I rate each comic.

Velvet #2 - Before the Living End, Part Two

On the run from her own agency, Velvet must find out what really got Agent X-14 killed, and the only way to do that is retrace his steps... and that's a pathway of dead bodies, ruined lives, and angry mercenary soldiers. And along the way, one of Velvet's darkest secrets is revealed.

Don't miss the second issue of this white-hot new series, from the hit creators of the CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER saga!

Preview

Agent X-14

The first issue of this new Image series by Captain America: Winter Soldier veterans Brubaker and Epting proved to be a surprise hit for me. I wasn't expecting the story to be as good as it turned out to be, and this in itself was a good thing since not a lot of new comics coming out these days are actually this good with their debut issues. But, Velvet is one of those and after a slight delay we finally have the second issue. The first one ended on quite a cliffhanger, after a lot of slow build-up of the mystery thriller story and the mystique of the character. The new issue is exceedingly good at building up on all those elements and presenting a female spy who is incredibly good at what she does and is quite a strong, three-dimensional character so early on. Much like Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s Lazarus, another ongoing Image series.

Here, we see the fallout of events from the previous issue as the protagonist Velvet Templeton is placed in an incriminating light where her loyalties to her organisation, the most secretive British Intelligence service ARC-7, are brought into doubt. The fact that she runs away from agency men who set out to apprehend her causes even further doubt. But at the same time, while Velvet makes her escape through the crowded streets of London on one hand, on the other we see how her direct superior, the director of ARC-7 himself, reacts to the news that his secretary might have been compromised by an enemy. Through this, we also see more of her life as a spy before she got a desk job and I have to commend Brubaler/Epting for showing Velvet as someone who can most definitely handle her own in a fight. That’s what made this issue really good.

And where the previous issue was loaded with narration and monologue, Brubaker trims it all down for this issue. Velvet’s monologue this time around is a bit fancy but it is always short and direct. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue from her in the issue and this serves to heighten her mystique, even through the clipped narration. Most of the dialogue is handled between Velvet’s superiors and her peers, which expands on her background as mentioned and shows us just what kind of a field agent she used to be before accepting a desk job.

Read the rest of Shadowhawk's review on Here

Images Unplugged Rating

Cover & Solicit - 3
Art, Colors & Inking - 3
Layout & Flow - 3
Story - 3
Verdict - 3 (6/10) - (Buy Velvet) SAVE 10%

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Shadowhawk is a blogger at http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/, senior reviewer for The Founding Fields book blog, a contributor to the Just Beyond Infinity mixed-content blog and a comic book reviewer at Comic Vine. The use of these reviews has been authorized by the original author.