Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: boom studios, Coda, fantasy, Matías Bergara, michael doig, post-apocalypse, simon spurrier

Coda #2 Review: Unreliable Narrator and a Unreliable Wizard

Sir Hum was unable to escape Ridgetown with the Ylf they had chained up in their vault. The mayor caught him and was ready to execute the former bard. Thankfully, his Pentacorn was able to raise enough Hell that Hum was able to get off with an exile. He next finds a tower with a delusional wizard whose daughter is a vicious former court jester.

Something struck me with Coda #2 that is interesting. The comedy understatement of some of his actions Sir Hum puts in his journal entries for Serka establish Hum as an unreliable narrator. I'm not sure if Coda will capitalize on that at any point, but it is an interesting thought.

Where Coda #1 established Hum as a clever rogue in control of most situations, the second issue shows something of a fall for the character. He has his ass kicked out of Ridgetown in the first few pages, and the rest of the book manhandles him consistently.

It's all still quite enjoyable and compelling. Hum is a good protagonist with strengths, weaknesses, goals, and feelings. The Pentacorn is a good vicious sidekick. The apocalyptic setting of the world continues to throw out surprises and creative concepts not pursued by many fantasy comics.

Matias Bergara's artwork is brilliant and incredibly well suited to the kind of story Coda aims to tell. The world he crafts is strange, often misshapen, and always dilapidated. Hum himself has a great design and suits the kind of man he is. The colors, with assists from Michael Doig, are a sickly and often restrained palette that reinforces that feeling of a dying world weakly grasping to life.

Coda #2 is an excellent follow-up to the first installment's creative flourish, and it contrasts it in all the right ways. Hum is shown to be vulnerable and capable of failure as opposed to the dashing and clever rogue he appeared to be in the first comic. Plus, Bergara and Doig do a hell of a job on the art. This book comes recommended. Check it out.

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