‘Victor LaValle’s Destroyer #2’ Review
Written by Victor LaValle | Art by Dietrich Smith | Published by Boom! Studios
Victor LaValle’s Destroyer #2 has the makings of a good comic but some of the execution was off-putting and at times even upsetting. Two issues in and it is still unclear who exactly the protagonist of this story is or what fully is at stake. There are individual moments that make it worth your time, but better writing could have tied all those together.
This continues the saga of Frankenstein’s monster as he has found himself in the modern world. He is on a specific mission that he will not wait on no matter who it may impact. Unwavering from his path we find that his feelings towards mankind have become extremely sour. Here he travels through Mexico and becomes this Moses-like prophet leading people throughout the desert. Victor LaValle does demonstrate how people will place their own beliefs and preconceived notions into something for either verification purposes or a reason to have hope. What is shown is this monster is a false prophet who is ambivalent towards anything outside his goal.
This leads to one of the more problematic scenes I have seen in a comic in some time. Depicting the death of a child in a comic is not something that should be taken lightly, and to the credit of Victor LaValle and Dietrich Smith, they understand that. Isolated the sequence works on how it is laid out on the page. By no means was it was gratuitous, but it was off-putting and ultimately unnecessary due to everything that surrounds it. Most of the violence in this series has not been treated with a sense of seriousness. Right after this moment, for example, there is a car filled with stereotypical country yokels flying through the air like a rag doll. Something you would expect to see in your normal blockbuster or superhero story. Outside of the fact it was an unnecessary sequence, it severely undercuts the death the child that just took place.
We are also spending a great deal of time with characters that are ultimately meaningless. The special agents from last issue return as they are trying to locate Dr. Baker. Their back and forth is humorous and the nonchalant way they approach their job makes them endearing to be around. They simply have a lot of scenes drenched in meaningless dialog that halts the pace of this story. Based on the ending of this issue it does not seem like we will be dealing with them for much longer. Hopefully, Dr. Baker can bring some character and purpose to make this book more worth your time. There is a good story here if Victor LaValle and Dietrich Smith can find it.
**½ 2.5/5
