ALMOST DEAD #2 – New Comic Review

ALMOST DEAD #2, by Ablaze Publishing on 4/17/24, picks up a few days later when Sara recovers from a concussion at a friend’s house while the world has spiraled into chaos.

The Details

• Written by: Galaxy
• Art by: Ryan Benjamin, Pedro Marasco
• Colors by: Sivakami M
• Letters by: Saida Temofonte
• Cover art by: Ryan Benjamin
• Comic Rating: Mature
• Cover price: $3.99
• Release date: April 17, 2024

Is ALMOST DEAD #2 Good?

Talk about a long hiatus. The Almost Dead series returns five months later, after the premier issue, to find out what happened to Sara when she unwittingly found herself stumbling through a zombie apocalypse. Galaxy’s protagonist is still clueless, but at least she knows how to gear up.

When last we left Sara, she was accidentally knocked out in a bathroom airport just as a zombie-ish plague began infecting the world. When she came to, Sara stumbled her way through the danger as she fought off the debilitating effects of a concussion, blissfully unaware of the danger around her. Eventually, she makes it to a friend’s house in a “borrowed” vehicle before passing out again.

Now, we catch up with Sara days later when she wakes up on the couch of her family friend, Zack. He’s not a fan of being connected, so Zack only knows that services are down but not why or for how long. Sensing something fishy, Sara insists on going to her eccentric Uncle Owen’s house, which has a suspiciously well-locked front door, a cache of supplies and weapons in his basement, and a mysterious video recording hinting that he anticipated the world’s current troubles.

Meanwhile, Sara’s little brother, Jake, gets a lot closer to the zombie action in NYC as he films the chaos with his smartphone and gets a little too close to the action.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s great about ALMOST DEAD #2?

Little brother Jake’s race through the streets of NYC, trying to avoid getting munched by zombies is thrilling stuff. Arguably, you could say he’s a bonehead for not getting the heck out of the city when it was obvious what was going on instead of filming everything with his phone for social media engagement, but it’s still a nail-biter.

What’s not so great about ALMOST DEAD #2?

The narrative of this issue stumbles in two areas that make it a little too hard to swallow.

First, Jake’s aforementioned boneheadedness is a bit silly. When people are getting killed just a few feet away from you, a person’s natural instinct is to run. Jake either has no natural instinct, or his need for Internet likes has poisoned his mind.

Second, Sara was almost completely oblivious in the first issue, but now she appears to conveniently have all the answers in the second issue. She knows the secret code to her Uncle’s security systems. She knows her uncle has a well-stocked inventory and weapons and exactly how to take action without knowing what’s going on in the outside world. The character shift between the first and second issue is incredibly jarring, even if you take the concussion into account.

How’s the art?

Ryan Benjamin and Pedro Marasco’s pencils/inks look great in this issue. The big flex is the extended action sequence involving Jake sneaking and running his way through the streets of NYC, which includes plenty of dramatic angles, energy, and tension. Kudos to the art team.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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