Scarlet Veronica #2 Advanced Review!

Big special thanks are needed to Mr. Jason Moody, artist of Scarlet Veronica. He commented in a prior post reviewing issue #1 of the comic about contacting me, and let me read issue #2 pre-press, over a week before it comes out!

I asked for his permission, and am now bringing you a special early review of Scarlet Veronica, issue #2.

Now I enjoyed the first issue, despite its flaws, and saw that it was a good opening issue to what I was hoping to be a strong series. Now really, the first issue doesn’t define a series in the end. Nowadays, I, along with several other people, tend to judge a series by its second issue and if by issue #2 I am not impressed me more then often drop it.

Before I even start the review, I am happy to say that Scarlet Veronica is not going anywhere from my pull list.

Now that we have some of the introductions and thanks out of the way, onto the review!

Scarlet Veronica #2

Written: Robert Barry, Joe Shaw, Jason Moody

Art: Jason Moody

Open Comments: Every so often I dip my head into the pool of Indy comics outside of Spawn and Invincible, and sometimes I find books I regret, other times I find treasures that I enjoy and can’t get enough of. Scarlet Veronica has easily became a little treasure with a strong pacing and good story and some wicked stylish art.

Story Comments: We start out right from where issue #1 left off where Veronica kicked a corpse back to his grave. From here we get an introduction to the next character of story….Death! Yes, Death is a character here. We’ve seen the image of Death personified in many, many, many comics before, and just like usual, the character of Death is great. I like how Death seems to not be the cut-throat “I know what to do so I just do it” kind of character, but that he takes in his surroundings and sees what is going on. This was a nice little addition and made the opening part to this issue nice.

We see a fairly clean done ending for just how Veronica has her powers, and I feel that there is a hint somewhere in the dialogue between her and Death that may foreshadow the series ending.

Overall this moment was nice and was a great opening for the comic. It was the only really talkative moment through the comic as following this is mostly high-paced action, as I’d hoped. And before I continue to the rest of the comic, I have to say there is a nice balance here. There is enough dialogue and character moments to further flesh out the character of Veronica, but the action here is solid stuff and very well done.

After a bit of back and forth with Veronica and her friend, we see the action set in and, what I won’t spoil how we get here, ends up with Scarlet Veronica going toe to toe with Santa Clause…well, a zombie dressed as old Saint Nicholas, at least. It’s one of those oddly ridiculous things that are funny and weird at the same time.

Throughout the action of Veronica taking on a few monstrous creatures, she has quick lines like “have I been naughty or Nice? Definitely Naughty” which are kind of funny and quick. With characters like Spider-man, stuff like this is easy to over-do in an attempt to be funny, but here with Scarlet Veronica, it doesn’t overdo it to the point of forced comedy that just irritates.

The action is quick and very nicely done, though I was a tad disappointed to see Veronica get knocked around, every new hero needs to get their feet sturdy before they can run so I’m hoping this isn’t a trend, as in a preview for what I’m guessing is issue #3, we see her kick some major monster ass.

The issue ends with a great cliff-hanger that has me excited for more of Veronica next month. Though I won’t spoil it like I usually do here, both as courtesy and because I really think that you should check this series out for yourself and see it for yourself. So to wrap up the story comments, great issue, great moments and solid action.

Art comments: Last time my complaints weren’t big but they where still there about the art. The art seemed to lean too much on easily done expressions and didn’t really convey a lot of emotion for that. But luckily it seems that is more remedied here. Sure, we still get the cheesy Manga face from time to time, but it’s nowhere near as big or even all that bad here.

Moody’s art style focuses much more this time on the heavy stylized work we saw bits and pieces of last issue, and the art dominates that way here in issue #2. Everything looks much wicked and like a lot more heart was put into it, though the art was fine last issue, I get the feeling that the artist had a real fun time drawing some of the scenes and expressions that we see here. Yes, there are some pretty good expressions, most of them coming form Veronica. Her wicked face by far looks the best.

To sum the art up, it’s damn good and the monsters look great, as does Veronica, and I look forward to seeing more of this art next month as well.

Final Comments: While I really did love this issue of Scarlet Veronica, there was something missing…that factor that just slams it in my head and keeps it there. To put it simple, it’s not quite at a Must Have level yet. Still, if anyone is interested, I recommend it for anyone who is a little tired of either the long running Marvel/DC comics or even long running Indy comics and looking for something fresh and exciting, Scarlet Veronica is definitely the perfect book right now for you.

4 Out of 5

Must Read