Jenny Zero #2

Jenny Zero #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Dave Dwonch & Brockton McKinney

Illustrated by Magenta King

Coloured by Dam

Lettered by Dave Dwonch

Jenny's BIG secret revealed . . . and no one is more shocked than HER! With the discovery that she's more like her father, Mega Commander Zero, than she thought, Jenny must now fight off a legion of monsters, save a city from destruction—and find enough alcohol to forget the entire ordeal!

The first issue of this was something of a revelation and took the whole Kaiju genre and flipped it on its ear. So the question was could the second issue live up to the first? The answer is a resounding yes and then some. I think the key to this is the characterisation of Jenny and how we see her. So long as neither her demeanour and language doesn’t change I have no doubt that each issue is going to be as good as if not better than the one before it. This issue is better than the first and i’m thrilled to see this and what it means for the rest of thes series moving forward. There is a lot going on here and it is all handled extremely well making me wish these were all double sized issues.

I am loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information as it all constantly moves forward is sensational to see. The character development is phenomenal as we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story, these characters and this world we are definitely left wanting, nay needing more.

I am very much enjoying seeing how this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. It is in these layers where we see different aspects of the story, the characters and their motivations start to really emerge and it’s exciting to see the manipulation and duplicity make itself really known. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here so perfectly match the story and makes it kind extra thrilling to read. The style behind the linework is sensational and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to bring out this level and quality of detail work is pretty astounding. The nod to traditional manga kaiju storytelling is here and while it isn’t something I normally gravitate towards it is wonderfully rendered here I can’t help but love it. The way we see backgrounds being utilised throughout and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us the depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is magnificently rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is crazy ass good. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work demonstrate a marvellous eye for how colour works, can and should work as well as how to utilise it to bring joy to the page.

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There is something for everyone within these pages and I have to say that while I’m not the biggest kaju fan around this has me on the edge of my seat it’s so good. The characters and the characterisation that we see here is so utterly phenomenal and the way the interiors bring this to life is so incredibly magnificent that there’s no way this doesn’t bring a smile to everyone's face.