Sombra #2

Written by: Justin Jordan
Illustrated by: Raúl Treviño
Colored by: Juan Useche
Lettered by: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM!

I didn't like Sombra #1 at all. It was naive and explotaitive. The characters weren't interesting, the art was alright for the most part but their page were (for lack of a better word) corny. But I was still interested in seeing what this issue was, for all its faults I think a comic not too different to this one could be really good.

And Sombra #2 almost fooled me. After DEA Operative Gone Rogue and Journalist Guy escape the villainous criminals shooting at them in a catherdal, they go to a small town named Tlaxculco (I don't think that is a real place but those 2 roots in nahuatl translate to TWISTED BREAD, which is fantastic) As they drive, they talk to a person who is acting as their bodyguard and in very broad terms he relates his experience in a world that's been radically altered by organized crime. His perspective is nuanced and complicated, and for a few pages Sombra seems to care about a character who isn't a caricature as the 2 protagonists are.

But then as they pull up to Twisted Bread they come across a weird collage of stitched up corpses in some sort of altar because.. that's what this comic is about. It's very telling that the journalist character ends up interpreting the conversation with the bodyguard for the audience and the main character. And it's more telling that the conclusion equates the bodyguard's experience with that of the people from Twisted Bread with that from “many [villages] like it”.

Sombra does not care about specifics, it's a weird collage concocted from North American nightmares and bogeymen. I don't think the creative team are entirely sure of what they're trying to accomplish. In both issues so far, there's a lot of whiplash between the moments where they attempt to broadly adress serious topics and the moments when they just present you with some edgy, rad image.

And on top of that, there's a plot involving the cop's father (who is some sort of cop turned warlord I suppose) which might be the through-line in this series, it definitely has made the most sense our of everything going on, but it is also the least interesting part of this book.

This is neither here nor there but the journalist looks like a telenovela actor.

I generally like the art in this series, the lettering is more than serviceable and Juan Useche's coloring is good, the blend of purple and red on the first scene in the church is gorgeous. Treviño has an interesting style, his faces always look interesting but a lot of his art here is corny. Jordan and Treviño clearly know how to structure their book so that page-turns pack a punch but a lot of the imagery falls really flat, it's clearly going for shock but more often than not it feels very childish.

Sombra is one of the most deeply flawed comic books that I've read. This issue is an improvement over the previous one but it doesn't fix the problems that the first one had. Even if I can't understand the appeal, I know there are people who will be interested in this sort of narrative. Recommended for fans of Heart of Darkness.