Hi-Fi Fight Club #2

Written by: Carly Usdin
Pencils by: Nina Vakueva
Colors by: Rebecca Nalty
Published by: Boom! Box

After a pretty big bombshell of a revelation last issue where we discover that the girls of Vinyl Mayhem are a group of sleuths/vigilantes/bringers of the peace. That, coupled with the disappearance of the lead singer of Stegosour, our main hero Chris’s favourite band, imposes quite the decision: does she accept her co-worker’s invitation to join them and discover what happened to the singer or does she bow out and potentially get fired?

After little to no deliberation, and a plea from Maggie to say yes, Chris reluctantly joins her Vinyl Mayhem crew in this wacky adventure. After getting their marching orders from the boss, the girls set out to try and figure out what happened to the singer. However, being the new girl, Chris is somewhat lost in all the excitement and ends up not knowing what to do and where she fits.

We are given a bit of back story as to how this group came about after Maggie comes over to Chris to ask her how she is doing looking for clues (in a magazine) and we discover that all the girls have joined within the last year and a half and that they have dealt with shoplifters, harassers and breaking up fights. It’s all very Babysitter’s Club meets Scooby Doo meets Empire Records (as a location).

The great strength of this issue lies in the developing relationship between Chris and Maggie, which is becoming, very quickly in this series, the heart of the book. Usdin’s characterization of Chris’s life as a teenage girl discovering first loves, first jobs, and having this massive secret unveiled to her feels very real. A little stylized, but real nonetheless. You want to root for Chris and you want to discover what lies at the centre of this mysterious disappearance.

Vakueva and Nalty continue to impress on art duties. Every single character introduced up to date have their own distinctive look and style that really helps distinguish one from the other. It also gives the reader visual queues on the type of person they may be. Everyone is dynamic on the page, and we can feel each character’s emotion - something I have touched upon on other reviews that I am big proponent of.