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Voodoo #2 – Review

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By: Ron Marz (writer), Sami Basri & Hendry Prasetya (artists), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)

The Story: One minute you’re making love, the other you’re at each other’s throats.

The Review: Some people gave this title’s debut issue a hard time for its starting choice of setting, and perhaps this turned off readers from the series early on.  That seems an unjust gut reaction to the storytelling choices Marz is making here, since at its backbone, the title has much more to it than a lurid excuse for sexually-exploitive scenes.  But now that we’ve gotten past that hump, we can set aside that distracting controversy and speak to the issue on its own merits.

Voodoo seemed a little one-dimensional when we first saw her—for good reason, as she spent most the issue dancing and taking her clothes off (not exclusively in that order).  The most you could surmise was that she was an alien trying to fit in among humans.  Here, she makes it clear that assumption may be true, but “…I’m not one of them.  I’ll never be one of them.  And I’ll make them pay.”  Clearly, she has a purpose for being here, and it may not bode well for us.

Her vengeful agenda may surprise you, likely because we’ve been conditioned by the likes of Superman, Starfire, and Martian Manhunter to believe that all outer space visitors just want to be like us.  To have a protagonist who not only doesn’t care about acceptance, but who may actively seek our destruction certainly sends this title in an interesting new direction.

We don’t know what motivates Voodoo (certainly not our moral code, which she dismisses), but clearly, it’s enough to keep her courting danger for the sake of telepathic data-gleaning.  Though she knows her enemies are onto her, she not only sticks around, she actually goes into the lion’s den, usurping the identity of Agent Fallon’s partner (both in business and lovemaking), whom she just killed last issue.  A twisted move by any standard, but she seems completely impenitent.

She points out the people she’s up against would do even more horrific things to her, and with equal lack of remorse, which no one can deny.  Agent Fallon certainly has no qualm simply ending Voodoo’s life, her superiors’ orders otherwise be damned.  But even against all that, Voodoo still refrains from killing Fallon even when the opportunity comes up several times.  We’ll have to see how she balances this contradiction in behavior later on.

Fallon makes a strong foil to Voodoo, being just as capable of turning professionally cold when the job calls for it.  In stark contrast to the obvious affection she shows towards her “partner” in the opening scenes, when she sees his pale, ravaged corpse in the strip club, she shows no emotion, only a speculative gaze.  Once the two women confront each other, they simply become soldiers, each with a mission, fighting both for revenge and the safety of their homeland.  At the end, you do want to see what fate awaits the conflict between these agents.

Basri and Prasetya have always had similar styles, and they’re almost indistinguishable here.  Both feature sparse furishings and settings, fully-formed figures, and cinematic POVs in their paneling.  The opening play of light and dark delivers a cool, noir-ish feel that actually accents the tension at the heart of the scene, heightened even more by Kholinne’s use of lighting.

Conclusion: A lot of mysteries at work in this espionage-thriller, as well as solid writing, character work, and art.  Not sure if it’ll rise up to the top of the pops in DC’s 52, but a strong middleweight nonetheless.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - It’s pleasant to actually see a big, flat-topped government muscleman veer away from the arrogant jerk model.  Black Jack, chewing on a cigar, inquires if the hotel Voodoo hides in is occupied.  When told no, he says, “Good, no worries about hostages.”

- It’s also nice to see the government bruiser unconcerned about a woman outranking him and putting him in his place.  When Fallon tells him she’s going after Voodoo instead of him, citing her partner’s death as reason, Black Jack responds, “Hard to argue with that.”


Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews Tagged: DC, DC Comics, Hendry Prasetya, Jessica Kholinne, Ron Marz, Sami Basri, Voodoo, Voodoo #2, Voodoo #2 review

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