War, Good For Absolutely Nothing — Reviewing ‘Imperial’ #2

A universe in chaos, cast into a furious war, is but a game to a duo of mysterious shadowy figures. That game takes a dramatic turn as the players on the board begin to realize there is something far bigger than them brewing.

Heroes and galactic forces collide in the giant second chapter of Imperial, Marvel Comics newest cosmic event. It’s brought to life by Jonathan Hickman, Iban Coello, Federico Vicentini, Federico Blee, Cory Petit, and Ariana Maher.

With this second issue comes a bit more structure and clarity.

While I liked the opening issue in many respects, the lack of character and continuity connections and just a jumble of things made it hit lighter than I would like. Despite this still connecting to nothing that has happened at Marvel in recent times (now Black Panther & Shuri in that mix), the overall flow works better. Less character stuff is happening here, it is an issue full of war after all, which kind of helps.

I like more character depth but that’s not always Hickman’s forte. Certain characters shine under his pen while others kind of always feel detached from what we know of them. We feel that a tiny bit here but at the same time people not being fully themselves can be attributed to them being part of brutal military operations happening here.

Overall, this was a fun improvement on what had already been set up. I’m invested either way to see how this all pans out.

All that action gives Coello and Vicentini much to do across the issue.

Their dense detailed and animated styles really do the sequences and moments justice. Even though most characters are very stoic through the issue, the expressiveness is still top notch. A duality of warmth and coldness is present at all times which befits the dueling tones of the series.

Just enough roughness is brought into play to give things a sharper angular weight. Action sequences flow into one another with grand kinetic energy. It actually feels like things are alive and happening before our eyes.

Like the previous issue, Blee dials back on some of the more usual vibrancy that comes with such characters and spaces. Plenty of wildly varying colors are floating around since these different species and groups have their own aesthetics. Much of the color tones are toned down to create a more fluid setting between the array of mostly gray spaceship spaces we inhabit for this issue.

Light filters and splashes of lighting effects give them their differences. From cooler blues to striking pinks to really warm yellows and oranges it allows each space to maintain uniqueness among the fray.

So many characters and events mean a lot of voices and sounds. Petit handled it all in the last issue but gets some help from Maher this time around. Together they nail all of it, from the flow of the words to the emotions and volumes backing those words. It hits the character beats that we’re given, even with my previous words about those, and letting them roll.

Imperial #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.