Posted in: Comics, Review, Titan | Tagged: Colin Lorimer, george markstein, Joana Lafuente, patrick mcgoohan, peter milligan, Psychological, spy thriller, The prisoner, Titan comics
The Prisoner #2 Review: Not Bad but Very Predictable
Breen is at the mercy of the Village, and they will stop at nothing to get the information about Pandora from him. Worse yet, he sees some familiar faces in the Village's compound, and they aren't saying the things that the MI-5 agent wants to here right now.
While the Prisoner #2 scores some points for its continued mixture of spy tropes with a narrative that plays on the reader's perception of reality, it loses some points due to predictability. It does leave clues to indicate where the ending leads, but the ending is predictable just due to the tropes of the genre.
You could likely guess almost exactly where the comic is headed by the midpoint. The opening scene is a truncated version of every "bastard dad" childhood narrative, and it feels cheap and its emotional low point unearned.
Breen is still charming, and some of the oddities of the Village are interesting. That latter point brings us to another frustrating detail of the comic, and that is how little we get to see of the Village. We only see Breen being interrogated and an extended chase sequence. As I already said, that chase sequence ends in a very predictable fashion. The Village seems bizarre and interesting. Maybe we'll get more later, but this doesn't have enough going on to leave me feeling patient.
Colin Lorimer's artwork remains very good, and the detailed and light additions of stylism make for a comic that looks both good and memorable. Breen is made highly expressive, and the odd details of the Village are framed well as to stand out. Joana LaFuente's color art is similarly quite good and well-balanced, making the visuals of the comic the stronger aspect of the book.
Prisoner #2 isn't entirely bad. It has its charming aspects, and its biggest failures are giving into the tropes of the genres upon which it draws. The art is good too, and I can't say stay away from the comic. That said, I can't quite recommend it either.