Dexter #2
A homeless man is dead! Murdered! And someone’s responsible! Dexter and Deb investigate, and talk to Dexter’s highschool bully turned philanthropist, Steve Gonzales. Dexter’s dark passenger is sure that it’s him, but all the evidence points to the murderer being Steve’s assistant.
Creative team: Jeff Lindsay (Writer) Dalibor Talajic (Artist) Ive Svorcina
Thoughts: This issue isn’t as much fun as the first, but does start to get into some actual plot. And the plot is intriguing. A mystery is established that really has me guessing. All the evidence points to Steve’s assistant, but why would Dexter’s dark passenger be wrong now? But then, Steve seems so sincere. Maybe he just wants Steve to be evil because of the bullying? Maybe Steve and his assistant are working together and are both responsible? I’m honestly not sure. All of this setup does take a toll on just having fun with the characters being themselves. Lindsay (who writes the Dexter novels) has always been better with characters and dialogue, than the actual plot, so I’m hoping the next issue can find a better balance. The dark humor he uses is brilliant, and this issue was unfortunately light on it.
Dexter’s inner monologue is cleverly used to set up the story thematically. Talking about how what we think is important can suddenly be sidelined by something we thought was just part of the background. It also gives a good character beat, subtly saying that Dexter just goes through the motions of normal life, so he won’t be looked on as a freak. Dexter has an interesting line about Steve: “People like that don’t change”. This is Dexter using himself as a frame of reference. He knows that bad people stay bad, because he could never change. Dexter’s best villains have always been a warped reflection of him in some way (ex: season 1-4 of Dexter).
The penciling in this issue was very average. It told the story well, but didn’t add anything to it. The faces seemed kind of wonky. The wonderful thing about the art is the coloring. It invokes the dark, twisted, yet sarcastic and funny tone that a Dexter story should have. The cover is beautiful, and makes good use of the (somewhat annoying) gigantic Dexter banner.
Creative team: Jeff Lindsay (Writer) Dalibor Talajic (Artist) Ive Svorcina
Thoughts: This issue isn’t as much fun as the first, but does start to get into some actual plot. And the plot is intriguing. A mystery is established that really has me guessing. All the evidence points to Steve’s assistant, but why would Dexter’s dark passenger be wrong now? But then, Steve seems so sincere. Maybe he just wants Steve to be evil because of the bullying? Maybe Steve and his assistant are working together and are both responsible? I’m honestly not sure. All of this setup does take a toll on just having fun with the characters being themselves. Lindsay (who writes the Dexter novels) has always been better with characters and dialogue, than the actual plot, so I’m hoping the next issue can find a better balance. The dark humor he uses is brilliant, and this issue was unfortunately light on it.
Dexter’s inner monologue is cleverly used to set up the story thematically. Talking about how what we think is important can suddenly be sidelined by something we thought was just part of the background. It also gives a good character beat, subtly saying that Dexter just goes through the motions of normal life, so he won’t be looked on as a freak. Dexter has an interesting line about Steve: “People like that don’t change”. This is Dexter using himself as a frame of reference. He knows that bad people stay bad, because he could never change. Dexter’s best villains have always been a warped reflection of him in some way (ex: season 1-4 of Dexter).
The penciling in this issue was very average. It told the story well, but didn’t add anything to it. The faces seemed kind of wonky. The wonderful thing about the art is the coloring. It invokes the dark, twisted, yet sarcastic and funny tone that a Dexter story should have. The cover is beautiful, and makes good use of the (somewhat annoying) gigantic Dexter banner.
A Look Inside
