Breaklands Season 2 #2

Badlands Season 2 #2

ComiXology Originals 2020

Written by Justin Jordan

Illustrated by Tyasseta

Coloured by Sarah Stern

Lettered by Rachel Deering

As Shattersword catches up with the group, Kasa finds herself in the clutches of the Spider Queen, in a prison ten miles in the sky.

These folks haven’t been messing around with season two here. I mean the hits are coming fast and furious and they don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. Justin is simply wrecking havoc on the lives of these characters and I’m not terribly sure why but then again it does make for some great reading. There are any number of things we can say about the direction this is taking but overall what this boils down to is if something is easy then it isn’t worth doing and you will come out the other end a much better and stronger person for it. Theoretically anyway because while this is what we’re told doesn’t mean that in the midst of it its something that want to believe in and hear.

I am totally enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. As the story continues to move forward and we see how the characters are reacting to the events of last issue things look rather harrowing for our intrepid heroes. The character development that we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we see how this takes on such an intense and dramatic turn.

With the way that this is being structured and as we see the layers within the story continue to grow stronger we are treated to one of the most tension filled adrenaline rushes around. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is utterly marvellous. With no way of knowing what is going to happen next and with the choice of who is after whom still up in the air we are seeing a whole new dimension to the story that the characters were previously unaware of. Or at least until recently it was suspected but remained largely conjecture. So as the revelations come fast and furious it is interesting to see just how the characters are reacting to everything we’re seeing.

I like the interiors here. There is a really interesting style to the work that we see that for me personally blends this all-ages with some more intense lines added to create a very unique look. If this were an adult cartoon I would totally watch this because it draws the eye in and has you looking around the panels absorbing everything that we see. The strength of the linework and how we see it’s varying weights being utilised to create the detail work is really rather well rendered. Well as far as backgrounds go I love seeing the Spider Queen and her webbing everywhere and this is how you utilise something to create the optical illusion and not need traditional backgrounds. I find it infinitely fascinating and it makes me want to see more, as does the fact of her visage in of herself. The creativity and imagination on display is phenomenal. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work is great and it’s really a lot more solidly packed than I would expect, think tattoo saturation, but it works incredibly well for the story. When we see the various hues and tones within the panels utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really superb.

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This makes me wish I could hold pages within my hands. ComiXology Originals really understands how to let creators unleash and create stories we crave like candy without ever knowing we had such a sweet tooth.