A House Built On Lies: Reviewing ‘Lawful’ #2

There are the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell society, and the lies society tells us. While they all have the power to harm, generally those that the ‘powers that be’ are telling hurt the rest, while benefiting the few.

What seems like an honest ‘paradise’ is anything but, as Lawful #2 begins to further peel back the curtain of this sci-fi fantasy world. Greg Pak, Diego Galindo, Irma Kniivila, and Simon Bowland shine the light of truth for us all.

Introducing a new world and all new characters and concepts is tough. Especially when you’re working within a limited story space, hoping to inform and entertain quickly. Pak has structured this story in the best way possible. Our first issue laid out all the characters, the world, the consequences, and the potential drama and tension of the story. Here in the second issue that is all ramped up. We begin to care for the characters more, and the real true tension of the story reveals itself.

Here, those that break rules are magically punished, their bodies morphed to slowly turn them into ‘monsters.’ Those in charge have created a society built upon the idea that being honest and true, law abiding, is good and the only way to be. Turns out, shocker, I know, that those same powers are lying, cheating, and tons of other things. Afflicted by the same spell, they of course have magical remedies they use to fix their afflictions, while still persecuting and manipulating the rest of the population.

Sounds pretty familiar, huh?

Pak weaves this real-world sort of situation into the fabric of this world, as we see our main character Sung dealing with his own rule breaking and this devastating revelation.

Creating such a space and fleshing it out goes beyond the writing though, since comics are a visual medium. Galindo gives every space we visit such weight and a true presence on the page. The more alien landscape and the visuals of a city from Earth ripped out of the 80s meld together smoothly. Giving everything the right level of familiar yet strange at the same time. So many sequences have no words or means for us to tell what the characters are saying or thinking, because the facial and body work is already doing that lifting perfectly.

Such expressive faces and figures, who seem to glide through the page so fluidly. Making sure to frame things in ways that maximize the space or the view, while keeping things engaging even without any sort of big action pieces. Engaging characters brought to vivid life make a book of mostly talking sail by while being so enriching.

Helping with that familiar and strange look are the colors that Kniivila selects. Presenting a palette that is very neutral and muted overall, the city is lots of grays and whites in many respects. Allowing for nature, the mutated, and some other elements to be the brighter flashier colors. Yet even they are still tamed, allowing everything to feel similar and very relatable on first glance.

In many ways the neutral, very gray and white heavy, coloring is evocative of the way that this city and its rules are a prison for the people. Everything is very ordered, bland, and set to the rules set by those that do whatever they want. Stripping people of their abilities to be themselves, explore, be creative, and other aspects that often make society better. Sometimes the rules are meant to be broken, especially rules that are inherently systematically already broken.

Of the characters we see, there are those that speak with earnestness and those with hypocrisy. Even before we know of it, Bowland allows that to be felt through the way the lettering is presented. We instantly feel the authentic nature of the words spoken by the preacher of sorts at the beginning. While the Champion is just so boisterous and instantly flagged as false. That is part of the story, but Bowland sells it with the way the personality and energy are clear in each letter.

Lawful #2 is now available from BOOM! Studios.