Written by Mark Russell
Art by Richard Pace
Published by Ahoy Comics
The first Second Coming series was my favorite series of 2019. It was funny, sharp, and well illustrated. There was a brilliance in both the artwork and the writing that it was almost divine when combined.
Now, the same creative team is back on this new series and it has, in this first issue, as good a start as the first series had.
Heck, it may even be better.
The book starts off on the planet Zirconia. It is forty years ago in the city of Crystallus. It becomes immediately clear that writer Mark Russell and artist Richard Pace are retelling the origin of Superman with their own twisted take on it.
And yes, it is twisted and altogether hilarious.
We are introduced to Voldar and Zoldana who are Sunstar’s parents.
Voldar tells his wife the bad news right at the start of the issue: the planet is doomed. Zoldana asks her husband how this is possible?
Voldar replies to look around and that everything is made of “f&$king crystal!”
I laughed out loud. We were off to an amazing start.
We get to see all of the things that lead up to the planet’s demise. All of them are hilarious, sad, and pointed.
Eventually, by the issue’s end, we cut to the present day on earth where we see that Jesus is excited that Sunstar and his wife are going to have a baby. By the issue’s end, Sunstar admits how sad he feels as he never knew his parents.
And thus, we are off on a seemingly sweet, emotional adventure.
There is a lot of back story but it is never boring. It seems like the stage is set for a cool story to come. Russell writes a smart and funny script with a lot of punch. And artist Richard Pace is simply one of the finest artists in the business. His work(with finisher Leonard Kirk) is some of the best in the business and constantly seems to be getting better.
This comic is a great gift to come out on Hannukah this year.
Well done, yet again.
RATING: A+
