Relying Upon The Genre With Descendent #2
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
David puts out an internet video about the recent kidnappings, and it gets the attention of the organization behind them. They send someone to dispose of David. Later, two FBI agents are searching a graveyard and expecting to find the kidnapper, they find David instead and assume him a suspect. They take him into custody, and Amanda works to get David freed. While she argues for his release, an assassin finds David in his cell.
Descendent #2 narrows the focus of the story more to David and Amanda and the kidnapping plot. We also get a look at the group behind the kidnappings. It’s about what you’d expect: shady people who wear hoods all the time and work out of an inexplicably dark headquarters.
Descendent also lost some of its charm between the first and second issues. David is still a fairly fun character, but the reliance on cliches of the conspiracy theory subgenre takes some of the sheen out of the book.
Of course the cult behind the kidnappings dresses in hoods and robes. Of course David is mistaken for the perpetrator by law enforcement. Of course the cult makes the mistake of trying to kill him while he’s in custody, essentially confirming their existence to David and anyone around him.
That isn’t to say there’s nothing about Descendent to grab onto. The cult does at least have a sense of humor, and the relationship between David and Amanda is very endearing. It would just be beneficial to Descendent if the story had more unique elements.
Evgeny Bornyakov’s artwork is good at least. The characters have good designs and are very expressive. Action is rendered well, and Lauren Affe’s color art adds some extra energy and spice to each scene. The book as a whole looks quite good.
Descendent #2 is a somewhat lackluster follow-up to the opening installment. The book relies a lot upon established tropes of conspiracy theory-based tales. David and Amanda as well as the artwork from Bornyakov and Affe keep the book from being a complete wash, but I can’t call it a must-read. That said, feel free to pick it up if what I’ve described sounds like your thing.
Descendent #2 comes to us from writer Stephanie Phillips, artist Evgeniy Bornyakov, color artist Lauren Affe, letterer Troy Peteri of A Larger World Studio, and cover artist Juan Doe.
Final Score: 6/10
