‘Rapture #2’ Review
Written by: Matt Kindt | Art by: Cafu, Roberto de la Torre | Published by Valiant Comics
Rapture is a challenging book to review as it is well put together yet extremely difficult to get into. It is hard fantasy with dialog that is thick and verbose along with a plotline full of multiple threads and magical creatures with enormous power. Most of the Valiant event comics are broad in their appeal and usually require little knowledge of their world or history. Early this year, for example, Divinity III was a great place to enjoy a phenomenal story no matter what you knew about Valiant as a whole. Rapture is not as inviting as that was. If fantasy is not a genre that normally appeals to you I could not fully recommend this series.
With this issue, we get more back story of the character of Rex the Razer. At first glance, he seems like a version of Odin that does not have as many jerk-like tendencies. We see his origin is far more tragic. That origin is depicted by Roberto de la Torre and is gorgeous in every way. Forcing two different artists into one book tends to lead to a disjointed book. When it works is when you have a situation like this where each artist is depicting their own specific section or flashback. The styles fit together well enough that it is not jarring moving from one to another. One thing Valiant has done better than any other publisher is how to pair artists with one another.
Specifically looking at my apprehension I have to point to what may seem like a minr detail. Perhaps it is, but it does have a major impact. That minor detail comes from the main antagonist of Babel and the choice Matt Kindt is using for his dialog. Many of the words are backward and out of place. This goes along with the theme of this book unquestionably. Overall that theme has been well integrated throughout this story with elements like characters that have the power to kill with just a spoken word. I do not envy Kindt as a writer with that premise. It has to be difficult to find ways to solve that problem.
Looking at the dialog of Babel specificly I understand what Kindt is going for, but it is a choice that makes it more difficult to read your comic. When you have such an important character speaking important dialog it is an odd choice to put up comprehension barriers. It ends up undermining a lot of the good this book is doing.
*** 3/5
