While there were people who didn’t like the launch of Pandora, I enjoyed the first issue. This issue, however, is far better, and although it has a painful moment or two, there are some absolutely great things in here. This post will contain some Spoilers…
The issue starts with probably the worst part. The first page is Pride talking to Envy, and it’s pretty rough. First, their dialogue just doesn’t seem natural. Maybe they wanted it to be unnatural, but it just doesn’t work here. Beyond the dialogue, the scene itself doesn’t seem to be relevant to the issue in any way. I’d much rather they’d just cut this scene and given us more of the main story. Additionally, the artwork on this page is subpar. Pride and Envy are not drawn well here, and although they seem mostly the same as they were in the first issue, I had a much harder time with them here.
From there we meet Agents Kincaid and Chang of S.H.A.D.E. (Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive) and A.R.G.U.S. (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) respectively. They interplay between these two characters is so much fun. They banter about interdepartmental communications and jurisdiction with far better dialogue than the previous page contained. I certainly hope they continue to be characters import to the story of Pandora.
Meanwhile, Pandora is getting outfitted with her armorer, Marcus. Again, the dialogue between these two is far better written. He’s an interesting character, and we still don’t know too much about him. I’d certainly like to learn more about his history, before he met Pandora and after, in the future.
At the same time, Giganta, Signalman, and Vandal Savage are trying to track Pandora. Giganta is drawn and written fine, and Signalman is perhaps a little better, but the real treat is Vandal Savage. They way he looks and dresses demands my respect of the artists. They dialogue between the three Secret Society members is almost as much fun as between the Agents, especially because of Savage. It’s like having Flash, Superman, and Batman talking. Signalman takes it easy, doing his job. Giganta speaks with incredible power. Whenever Vandal Savage speaks, he speaks with incredible authority and power.
Pandora decides that if Superman, the purest of heart, couldn’t open the box, that she must try the darkest of heart. Who could that be? She goes to the three Secret Society members, but they attack before she can speak. Signalman’s attack does nothing, followed by Giganta smashing Pandora, to no effect. She throws one of her knives into Giganta’s forehead, and it explodes, taking Giganta down.
Signalman discovers, through his devices, that she’s in incredible pain, but she’s just carrying it. Her broken bones are healing, she’s not breathing, and she just keeps going. Savage attacks her, and they fight, using everything from hand-to-hand to guns and knives.
She shoots him in the face, blowing half of it off, and seemingly killing him. Apparently this shocks Signalman, though I’m not sure why, exactly. Off course, Savage is not dead and he snaps Pandora’s neck, to no avail. He demands she hand of the box, or he will fight her until he finds a way to kill her. But wait…that’s exactly what Pandora wants. She wants him, the darkest of heart, to open it.
Unless he’s not the darkest of heart. Apparently there’s still some “good” in Vandal Savage. A surprising turn, but I kind of liked it. Not because “there’s good in everyone”, but rather I like the idea that someone as dark as Vandal Savage still isn’t the darkest. There are darker. Black Adam, maybe? Or the mysterious Outsider? I doubt Luthor, but the Joker’s got to be pretty dark of heart, not that I expect him to appear in Pandora.
Anyway, the issue ends with the two Agents from the beginning launching a full investigation into the extensive, paper mind you, files on Pandora. Whether they’ll end up as allies to Pandora, enemies, or somewhere in between, I’m glad it seems they’ll be appearing in future issues.
The art overall in this issue is good. Excluding the terrible first page with Pride and Envy, the quality is very nice. Pandora, Marcus, Signalman and Vandal Savage are all great. The two Agents are a bit generic, and Giganta isn’t incredible, but that’s okay. The art is certainly more consistent this issue then the last one, which is reassuring. I understand that the style is probably not for everyone, but I love the look of JLD and Phantom Stranger, and this is stylistically similar.
Overall, this is a much better issue than the first one, which was already very good. I like where Pandora is going with more emphasis on characters, and I enjoy getting into Pandora’s head more and seeing why she’s doing the things that have lead us to Trinity War. As a Trinity War tie-in, it’s not particularly important. If you want to learn a little more about Pandora’s motives, or want to see more of the Secret Society in action, then you’ll probably enjoy this issue. If you’re a fan of DC’s Dark line of comics (Phantom Stranger, JLD, Constantine, Swamp Thing, etc.) you’ll probably enjoy the style and tone of the story and art here. If you prefer only the Justice League line, or the Edge line, maybe not. As a fan of the Dark line, I give this a strong 8/10 or a weak 9/10. I know I gave last issue an 8/10, but I’m almost reconsidering that after this issue. This was so borderline 9/10, that if they’d just fixed the awful art and dialogue on the first page (which really should be some of the best, it is the first page potential readers will see) this definitely be 9/10. I imagine that future issues of Pandora will not always be this good, but I’m okay with that.
Side note: It was great to see S.H.A.D.E. around. Save Frankenstein in JLD, we haven’t seen much of them around all of the Trinity War stuff yet.
Are you looking forward to fleshing out some of these characters in future issues?
Erathon Reviews 