Review: Mud Man #2

I honestly wanted to have this review up yesterday, butImage sent the book out late on Tuesday and I’m technically on vacation untilthe end of the week. I know you probably don’t care, but from a personal standpoint from someone who promoted the first issue so much due to my excitementand joy for it, it’s frustrating to then have to wait to promote the secondissue. This issue is what I call a “flip of the coin”type story, in which we replay the major events from the first issue and seethem from another set of eyes connecting the dots. Same coin just a different side.

We begin in that same abandoned house by the beach, but thistime we find our bank robbers are just moving in as they try to keep a lowprofile from the police. They’re in the house for a few minutes when they heara crash from upstairs. That crash being Owen discovering the “Bat Cave”, theychase him away until they reach the mud and one of them fires two shots at him.We know what happens from there. The story continues in a montage of sceneswith the crooks hanging out in town bidding their time. They return to thehouse to find Owen’s dad (the Policeman) checking out the spray paint, theyjump the gun and hit him over the head taking him hostage.

Personally I’m not big on this style of storytelling (flipof the coin that is); it always feels like its short changing the reader. That’swhy in movies they save it for the last five minutes of the flick. Even still Ifound it to be rather enjoyable with the two idiot crooks at the center oftheir own mistakes. It didn’t do a lot in the way of building Owen's character,but it was fun and set the stage for future events. It was good because it didn’tfeel like it was following a formula, but rather continuing to ease readersinto this world. This is the start of a new superhero and he doesn’t have agoal, an arch enemy or even a clear understanding to how he’s still alive. Thebest he can do is throw mud in people’s faces and run away and frankly there issomething cool about that.

Grist does a great job with this issues art and story. The panelsset up for several of the pages were in the vein of The Spirit and made simple scenes interesting to look at. Grist isin harmony with both the story and the art and that makes for a fun read.

The thing about MudMan is that it isn’t perfect, it has room to grow and really it’s still somethingvery special. It’s a comic that I want to see mature from issue to issue. Iwant to find out where it will be in twenty plus issues because it’s strangelyunique. This issue may not have grabbed me as much as the first did, but it wasstill a heck of a read. Again, this is something special in the comic industrytoday and you want to get in on it before its everywhere and you're left in the mud.

Score: 3/5

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist

Colorist: Bill Crabtree

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $3.50

Release Date: 1/4/2012