Pop Star Assassin #2

Pop Star Assassin #2

Behemoth Entertainment 2021

Written by Ed Lavallee & Matt Cashel

Illustrated by Marcelo Basile

Having escaped the chaos of the Red Pepper debacle, things start to SHAKE, RATTLE and ROLL as Bruce and company find themselves caught in a rolling gun battle exploding on the streets of Las Vegas, a vengeful Don Franzetti calls in some hired help for a little payback, a bag lady gets thrown from the van (or is it a truck?), and Agent Cowboy version 2.0 makes an appearance.

So this is one of those outside the box, off the wall, comes out of left field kind of books that once you find you automatically fall in love with. I mean c’mon, it’s got a secret government program, the mob, assassins, clones and robots all running around the streets of Las Vegas tearing up the place so what’s not to love? Add into the mix who these folks who are taken from, see cloned, celebrities and others of their ilk and you’ve got this utterly mad and brilliant story taking shape. That this issue picks up where the last left off, in the middle of a car chase with guns blazing with their newest passenger and a mysterious man on a motorcycle well let’s just say that the need, NEED, to know what’s going on has been implanted.

I am a massive fan of 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 are impeccably rendered. The character development, which is utterly phenomenal by the way, that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job with fleshing out the personalities of those we see. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages it generates this huge buzz that we can’t seem to get enough of.

I am loving the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way these layers open up new avenues to be explored. Whether it’s new characters or the ones we have met learning more this all adds some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are bloody brilliant! The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the detail within the work that we see is stupendous. While we don’t see nearly enough backgrounds in use, when we do they are exceptionally well rendered which is why we need more, the composition within the panels manage to not only enhance and expand the moments but they also bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story incredibly well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an extraordinary understanding of how colour works. I mean between the linework and the colouring that dead end alley panel is beyond magnificent.

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I can't quite put my finger on one thing as the reason this stands out like it does because there are a myriad of factors in play that combine to make this as spectacular a read as it is. Between the wild cast of characters, the premise of shadow organisations deeper than the deepest black and then of course there’s the mob all have their unique significance to the book. Plus with this level of writing and such stupendous characterisation wrapped up in the sheer brilliance of the interiors just make this leapfrog its way to the top of the pile.