Review: The Unknown #2
Release Date: 10 June 2009
Writer(s): Mark Waid
Artist: Minch Oosterveer
Covers: Erik Jones, Matthew Dow Smith with Andrew Dalhouse
Colours: Fellipe Martins
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Catherine and James are back in the second issue of this four-part miniseries, and things are getting weirder! How, you may ask? When fringe science is involved, my friends, it’s only a matter of time. The real question is, will Catherine last long enough to answer that question we all wonder about at one point or another in our lives?
I don’t know how many different ways I can come up with to express how awesome Mark Waid is. The man is just damn good at spinning a yarn, and The Unknown is another example of his awesomeness. Literally, all my reviews of his work are quickly becoming a fangirl squee-fest but I love his way to tell a story.
This issue picks up where the previous left off (Catherine and James are still in the Freakish Doublemint Twins’ laboratory), and within minutes Catherine’s already got the “mystery” solved. What we and James find out is that Catherine has zero interest in helping the twins; she’s only interested in the object they hired her to find. More importantly, she’s only interested in knowing if the object works. This is where it’s obvious I’m not the sharpest pencil in the box. As soon as you find out what the object is for, it should have hit me what “the unknown” is. Nope, had to wait for Catherine to explain her need to know if the object works.
I found this issue to be extremely entertaining. It was like the good old days of The X-Files in comic form. Everything is spot on, from the action, to just Catherine and James talking to each other, to the amazing art by Oosterveer. Everything works. The science is thrown at you pretty fast (don’t worry, you’ll be able to understand and follow the conversation), as is just about everything. I keep going back to this, but I think it has to do with the small number of issues in the series. Things happen fast, but it never feels rushed.
Can’t recommend this title enough. It’s just fantastic and I can’t wait for the next issue. Especially after that last page – it was a total “Oh.Em.Gee.” moment and I haven’t had one of those when reading a comic in a while!
